His Own Path
by Razzack
Summary: Before Starr's fireteam was assembled to battle the Darkness together, the other Guardians had their own teams, lives, and missions. This is the story of one of their resident Titan's, Raz.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So here is my second update to my story, this chapter more than doubled in length to the original oddly enough. I don't own Destiny, Bungie and Activision do. But I own my OC's. So I hope you enjoy.**

**Ch. 1- Immortals**

Humanity was one of the greatest enigmas of this universe. Many species not from the green and blue jewel of the Sol system would argue their own was more special in their own ways. But Humanity, they had a tendency to cling to their ways even on the brink of destruction. They had clearly shown the capability of doing it to themselves throughout history and the few brief moments of piece didn't do much to amend the destruction they had caused.

That was until an entity called the Traveler arrived. Humanity, who was struggling to find a foothold amongst the other planets in their immediate area were now conquering the stars. Expanding at an exponential rate and developing their technology that many had only theorized would happen several generations from now. If ever.

This mystical entity decided to one day depart the now thriving beings and allow them to flourish and expand on their own. It didn't take long for the people to start applying the gifts the Traveler had given to them to the tools of war. In the need to defend themselves in the now much bigger galaxy, or against themselves. Because no matter how many times it was argued against by people, war would always occur, and Humanity was good at war.

This did little as the enemies of the Traveler started to appear in the wake of the departed globe. The Fallen appeared first as ruthless vagabonds, followed by the decrepit Hive which instilled fear into even the hardiest of warriors, the militaristic Cabal soon joined the assault on the system, and now the mysterious Vex. Humanity's enemies seem to be growing at an exponential rate, and no allies were in sight. Planets that Humanity worked hard to colonize had fallen quickly and at a high cost when these separate groups began their crusades against our people. But humanity had gotten one more lucky bone and the mysterious sphere had shown up again to go before the Darkness, the Traveler had returned, and helped pull humanity out of it's rapid decline. That was years ago, the death toll was still climbing, and some blamed the Traveler's first appearance for this destruction.

All these thoughts were interrupted as a series of artillery shells crashed into the instacrete ceiling above the heads and the area around the bunker of the Mars 114th Heavy Armor Infantry detachment. Several eyes rose from watching the ground or at the wall to give worried looks at the fragile protection the structure was giving them. The ceiling groaned loudly for a moment and thankfully held steady despite the recent and past bombardments. Silence returned as the Cabal artillery could be heard firing on other positions. The Cabal had been pushing at the borders of the fortifications for months. Testing the defenses, probing for any weakness in the Human war machine.

Men Scrambled towards the viewport and raised their rifles hastily. They knew this calling card well. Artillery would fall and soon the Legionnaires followed with Centurion command. Human artillery could be heard screaming through the sky and in the background the barks of several high powered sniper rifles echoed across the Red Waste. The soldiers had lined up with their Staff Sergeant at the viewport and with their weapons aimed down range awaited the coming march of Cabal.

"Prepare to fire on those sons o' bitches when they come over that dune!" The burly man called out, and not even a second later the first Cabal appeared.

It had been the first to appear and was dropped in less than a heartbeat after cresting the dune. The other Cabal behind the first Legionnaire didn't take the hint and a large wave of heavily armored behemoths stomped over their dead brother and closer towards the Human line of resistance. Auto rifle fire filled the air and the defenders took turns reloading and calling out targets. This had been the daily routine on mars since the Cabal put boots on the ground, and it always ended the same.

The last Cabal finally hit the sand and let off a few residual twitches as it's dark blood mixed into the red Martian surface. Another small victory for humanity, and another day in Hell as the Red Waste now had more bodies to fill it. Turning the expansive dune sea into a massive graveyard of Cabal troops and armor.

Silence had returned, it was generally thought to be a good sign for soldiers. A sign that all was well in the world, a notion that you had survived and your foe did not. But it wasn't great, or even good at all, at times it could be deafening and it gave them too much time to think. To imagine what awaited them outside the several feet of instacrete, what other horrors their numerous enemies had for them. This new silence was occasionally broken by a woman's cursing as she fiddled with a now sputtering radio.

"Damnit…" The radio began to produce static as the woman struck it with a socket wrench. "Well this piece of shit is busted!" She called over her shoulder while tossing the tool away. She heaved a sigh before an idea struck her.

"Petty Officer, you're a technician aren't you? You got any ideas on how to fix this?" She called out as her helmeted head swiveled over to a large man by the viewport. His response was a silent shrug as he pushed himself off the barrier.

"I still am and I could take a look, Corporal."

The dust of Mars was slowly making it's way up the walls of the bunker line and the trenches, but Petty Officer Smit was more interested in fixing the now broken radio than the blowing sand that was adamant on burying them. He was an augmentee to this army detachment as a technician, and he was starting to regret it. The sand was super fine on Mars and it was mainly up to him to keep the combat suits in order.

Stifling back a yawn he realized that his adrenaline was finally wearing off and with a slight grimace, Smit grabbed the thrown screwdriver and placed it in a pouch on his belt. He'd need it since all the work the Corporal did in here was moot. He needed to go outside.

"Staff Sergeant, I need to go outside and check the antenna and the load units. See if they have been damaged." The Petty Officer called out, not really expecting a response in the negative. The gruff older man had pretty much given everyone free reign in the bunker. Seeing as they could die at any moment.

Checking the seals on his combat armor he approached the door and punched the release button. Pulling out his side arm he checked the chamber and magazine. He didn't want to be caught unprepared or with a jammed weapon. Seeing as his weapon wouldn't spontaneously combust on him he pushed the door open. As he set foot on the deckplate of the airlock he felt a hand on his shoulder hold him back slightly, and his head swiveled back to see the Corporal from before. With the last operating Exo unit in the bunker.

"You aren't going out there alone, the Staff Sergeant has authorized that Romeo-101 and I follow you out there and give you cover." The Exo behind her nodded in agreement as it checked the sniper rifle in it's hands. The cold of the blue optics sent chills down the Petty Officer's spine.

Those machines were strange. Not because it seemed to mimic humans, but because of the rumors surrounding how they are made. He shivered inside the armor again as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Smit nodded to the pair and the airlock let off a hiss as the air depressurized around them. There was a small dinging sound followed by the latch moving aside and they took this as their cue to exit into the bright light of Mars.

The visor on his and the Corporal's helmets polarized to compensate for the change in light and their heads swung around looking for any residual Cabal troops. Seeing nothing that was even remotely breathing they turned around and climbed up to the top of the bunker. It offered them a better view of the surrounding area and it gave Smit access to the antenna. The far off crashes of the conflict echoed across the waste as Smit looked at the remains of what was the radio antenna.

"Well shit." Smit grumbled, kneeling by the scorched stump. "I'll see what I can do."

"If you require assistance, I can view things at a much closer proximity than your eyes are capable of." Romeo commented. This comment caused Smit to look up from the remains of the antenna and give the machine a sideways glare. His hands however never stopped their work.

"Are you even rated to fix these things?" He asked Romeo skeptically. The Exo shook his head and they both turned away from each other. Returning to what they were doing before and creating a small pocket of silence. The Corporal fidgeted slightly as she cradled her rifle and glanced between the two of them. The awkward silence that formed around her was nearly suffocating.

"So Petty Officer-"

"Call me Brian." He cut her off while he reached for a small wire and attempted to clip some of the frayed end off. "It's easier than calling me by my rank all the time.

"Alright, Brian, you can call me Kara." She paused to take a breath. "Is that thing even salvageable?"

"Yeah, well only a little bit. The majority is toasted, no joy on most of this. So I am just rigging a short range radio to bounce off of the other bunkers." Pulling out the screwdriver he tightened down a wire bundle and began stuffing it into the husk of the radio antenna. "We got lucky that this wasn't a direct hit, or we would be going silent."

Smit dusted himself off as he looked at Romeo, the machine never even turned around to face him. It's attention was pulled to something far off, sniper raised and aimed down range.

"We should return to the inside. Cabal armor and heavy infantry are inbound." Romeo informed as he turned finally to face them and walk towards the ladder. "We must warn the Staff Sergeant, and radio the other bunkers." Romeo ignored the sarcastic salute given by Smit and waited for the two to enter the airlock on the bunker.

The two Human troops shared a look between them before Smit gestured for Kara to go first. When he did finally climb down and let his boots sink slightly into the sand there was a buzz of motion from the trenches. He could spot artillery and armor forming up, along with the heavier infantry piling up against the wall. His gaze drifted up towards the horizon, and he could see it, what many would call a sandstorm. But he knew better, the Cabal were done fucking around.

"Shit."

He didn't wait anymore to enter the somewhat protected confines of the bunker and was not ready for what was inside.

Silence was not something that the trio expected from the bunker as the airlock pressurized behind them. No one was in the spots they had left them in and the weapons locker had been opened. Everyone had loaded the heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. Having placed them by the viewport. The opening of the hatch had drawn everyone's attention and had answered the question of if they knew about the incoming forces.

"Orbital is down, last evac for the civvies, wounded, and VIPs just left." One of the soldiers, a private, informed them. "The Cabal are pushing on all fronts, Freehold just fell, and they are pressing all the fronts." The private continued before the first artillery shell crashed into the bunker. "All fronts…" The man repeated himself as he made his way back to the viewport. The air tense with what they knew was coming.

That was when the screeching of shells filled the air, and the first one struck.

Another shell crashed into the roof of the bunker and it was followed by another and another. The lights flickered a few times and then died as the ceiling began to crack. The panicked yells of the soldiers filled the air as the few who had remained at the viewport began to open fire. Their shell casings bouncing off the floor and calling the others into action. Several of them grabbed the heavy machine guns and the deep thrumming sound of HE rounds filled the air.

With all the rounds and rockets flying down at the advancing Cabal, it seemed nothing was going to slow their advance. They continued to push ahead, the Phalanx shields deflecting several rounds and explosions. Bullets did find their marks, our own artillery smashed in the midst of their formations. But the Cabal kept moving forward, climbing over or shoving aside their dead. Those shields were effective, leaving many of the smaller Cabal unharmed and bringing them even closer to the Human defenders.

The Phalanx's broke rank to allow many of their hovertanks to glide out and close in on the bunker line. The main guns of all the tanks rotated, positioning themselves on one of the few anti-air emplacements and quickly destroyed it allowing the first wave of Harvesters to fly in close. This opened a new type of panic with the troops as the Cabal were now heard pounding on the bunker's reinforced door. Troops scattered as they tried to realign themselves to take on the new threat from behind.

"We're so screwed, man!" One of the soldiers cried out as his helmet swiveled from one side to another. "There is no way we are getting out of this alive!" The man continued before tossing his rifle aside and running for the armor lockers to shut himself in.

The rest of the troops hesitated, watching their comrade panic and abandon them before one of them slammed the emergency shutter closed. The metal barrier slid over the viewport and the soldiers were now able to focus on the new threat. They didn't get much reprieve as the Cabal started to really beat down the door. The massive clangs nearly deafened the people who awaited their foe. None of them spoke, solely watching the door bend slightly with each crash, and listen to it creak ominously.

The door didn't last long until it was ripped off it's hinges and flew into the opposite wall. It crashed to the floor with a series of resounding clanks but was quickly drowned out by the return fire of the remaining 11 Human's and Exo's auto rifles. The darkness off the bunker was illuminated by the sporadic fire and the clattering of the shots against metal only pointed out one thing to these men and women. They were shooting the hardened shield of a Phalanx. With this realization they halted their fire and a few reloaded what little they could. The Phalanx didn't wait long for the defenders as it quickly slid back the shield almost as soon as the weapons ceased firing.

As the Phalanx backed off the troops were assaulted briefly by the light of the early evening before the smaller Psions started to stream in single file. Initially this made the work of defending the bunker easy as the auto rifles and the larger machine guns made short work of the scrawny aliens. Unfortunately the stream turned out to be a massive wave and a few of the smarter ones started to vault Void energy across the room as they entered. The first one to realize this tactical advantage managed to send a pair of men into a wall with a sickening crunch, their armor doing little to cushion the impact.

The Psion died soon after but more came, and they seemed more determined to lance their energy in any direction that seemed like something might be living there. The Human's scattered to find new cover, and many were caught in transition and never made it safely. The mini rockets the Cabal troops employed in their rifles blowing chunks of armor and man off of any body.

Brian's head was forced down by Kara as she saw a stray shot coming their way. Taking this moment not to reload, he primed a pair of grenades and lobbed them both towards the door, the first one bounced into the airlock and the second remained in the bunker. Trapping a few in the shrapnel and shredding them. The reprieve was short as the next Psion poked it's head through the door, quickly retracting as the last four defenders opened fire.

"I don't want to fucking die like this!" Kara cried out over the sounds of the combined gunfire.

Before she could continue Brian felt something crash into his armored shoulder followed by the sound of what he later would realize was the bunker collapsing and he shoved Kara with his free hand before realizing she was not far enough away from him to escape. They were being buried by rubble and one of the others screamed briefly before being crushed by a rather large chunk, cutting him off quickly. He quickly tried to asses the situation, but his brain seemed muddied, slow. He could still tell that he was unable to move, but she was on the edge of the pile barely hindered by the debris, whereas he was more towards the middle of the pile.

"Out! You have to go! Hide before they get in here!" He grunted, he hoped that came out right since he could barely hear himself. The whine of the shell shock was causing more pain in his head and throughout him as he tried to force some of the rubble off of him. It wouldn't budge, he was stuck for sure, but he wouldn't let her be condemned to the same fate.

Twisting his body in an even more painful position he reached as far as he could and grabbed a piece of instacrete and pulled back as hard as he could in his awkward position. Kara managed to snake her leg out before crawling over to him and looking him over quickly to asses the damage. The shellshock on her was almost as obvious as it was on him, she hadn't heard him telling her to go, even if he tried now it would sound dim and unintelligible. Thinking as quickly as he could in his situation he roughly shoved her away. She seemed to bounce back and her hands grasped at him but he pushed again, sending her tumbling further away from him this time.

"Go on! Hide-!" He began coughing and the biosigns on his HUD began to blind him as more warnings began to appear and blend together in a sick mess of flashing colors. He didn't take too long on each one as he blinked to swipe them all away. He knew what they were all telling him, and he didn't want to read it.

His mind was starting to come out of it's daze as he looked back up at the fading light in the sky, and realized that it wasn't the sky, it was the underbelly of a tank that had apparently rammed the bunker. He shook his head as he realized that the little fuzzy lights were sadly not stars in the distance but engine status lights. If he was going to die on this red dust ball he would at least do some more damage to his enemy, but first he needed a weapon. His hands soon found purchase on a weapon grip and he attempted to pull it closer to him, and after a brief tug of war with what he hoped was his stuck rifle. It turned into a discarded rocket launcher.

"Well, why not?" He slurred with a dark chuckle, Petty Officer Brian Smit tilted it up and at the closest exhaust port. The launcher leaning awkwardly at an angle, like him, and heavy causing a strain on his already tired arm. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them for one last time as he pulled the trigger and released the rocket. He watched with a sort of grim satisfaction as the rocket seemed to glide out of the tube in slow motion toward the hovering engine not two feet in front of him. The rocket impacted and time seemed to stop. That was when it detonated and he felt his body being pushed by the force of the launcher, and as his body twisted in different directions as he felt the concussive force of the explosion wash over him from the other direction. Fortunately he never felt the searing flames from the explosion.

Kara screamed in horror as she watched the explosion under the tank from her place between a table and the wall. The fireball spat out of all sides before a chain explosion caused the tank to careen to the side and crash into the ground before the other engines sputtered and died. She didn't wait long to rush out and try to find his body, but the area was scorched and she couldn't distinguish any of the now scattered parts.

Dropping to her knees and sobbing she ignored any warnings her HUD had brought up. She barely registered the fact that she felt a jerking motion in her abdomen. A morbid curiosity took over and she looked down to see the barrel of a Legionnaire's weapon stuck against her chest. She idly reached up as she felt the Cabal suddenly pull back. Giving her a full glance at the bayonet it had rammed through her body. The fading sun gleamed off the blood coated blade and she collapsed on the dusty floor of the bunker.

She watched the Cabal stomp it's way back up the rubble pile before her vision faded and she let out a low death rattle.

**Post A/N: Well there you go fellow Guardians. I hope you enjoyed this bit and that I can get these updated sooner, I'm going to go and try and do this simultaneously to starting the sequel, I've changed my mind about when to write it due to someone being kinda pushy. You know who you are. But keep on keepin' on Guardians!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Once again I don't own Destiny. Bungie and Activision do. My characters are mine though. Also, an OC from In His Footsteps will show up this chapter and probably next one. I hope this one turned out better and I am improving. Thanks and review please!**

CH 2: I want to feel that power surge

The ruins of what had been dubbed the 'Shattered Dome' stretched out before a single Warlock. His robes billowing slightly in the small breeze across the Martian surface. The scout rifle in his hands was held in a loose grip as he, well his Ghost, analyzed the body of the Cabal Psion his fireteam had caught out in the open.

"Seems like it was just a scout." The Ghost informed the group.

"Well damn, I was hoping we had come across a large patrol or something." A female voice announced with distaste. "I mean, we have a bounty for a whole weapons caravan and only find this bullshit." Her distaste was punctuated with a swift kick to the dead Psion.

The Warlock looked over his shoulder to the small Titan woman. Shaking his head he returned to looking at the broken Dome before them. Something was telling him that he needed to go there, and find out what had happened. What that place actually used to be called, and how many of those people had escaped their dooms there.

"Well quit whining, I got some movement closer to the Dome." A third voice cut into his thoughts. "It's small and quick. I think it's a Ghost."

"Well where is it's Guardian?" The woman asked again. Her heavy helmet swiveled back towards the other man, a Hunter. Who only responded with a shrug.

"Well," began the Warlock, "Ghosts only go out alone for one reason." He called out his Sparrow and mounted up. "To find their Guardians. So let's go." He sped off without even waiting for the other two.

"Wait! Damnit Sushi! Get back here!" The woman yelled before turning to the Hunter and pointing in the direction of the Warlock. "Entity! We have to after that dumbass!"

"We have a bounty to complete, Joanna. So we'll let the Warlock do his thing, I don't want to waste too much time on this." The Hunter shook his head and hefted his sniper rifle as he trudged down the other side of the dune.

Joanna roared in frustration before grabbing her own sniper rifle off her back and following after Entity.

.

The light of the sun reflected dimly off of the grime covered Ghost. It may have been born of pure Light, but it didn't have a Guardian to dedicate itself too. This led to it leading a never ending search for someone to follow and aid against the Darkness. This troubled the Ghost.

"No… I know you are around here somewhere…" The Ghost whispered to itself as it entered a shattered prefab building. "I can feel your Light coming from- AH! There you are!" The Ghost exclaimed as it went to analyze what looked to be a skeletal arm with a bit of armor on it.

It spun in place for a moment scanning the surrounding sand and muttering to itself as it seemed to be looking for something else.

"Where is the rest of you?" A pause. "Also, I don't think that one is yours." The Ghost moved away from a fractured skull and began to break apart into separate nodes a into a large light filled sphere. Pulling the different pieces of matter together to start the creation of a body and armor before it.

"You truly are miraculous creatures aren't you?" A voice softly spoke from behind and was followed by padded footsteps.

The Ghost didn't waiver from its mission in trying to piece back together the remains of the now forming Guardian. The bones clicked into place as muscle and sinew began to form over them, and the body was growing. Larger than the Ghost had anticipated, and his thoughts were voiced by the Guardian who watched the whole ordeal.

"You sure you are putting one person back together? Or is it two?" The mechanical voice let the Ghost know he was dealing with an Exo. By the sound of the inquisition behind him, a Warlock most likely.

"I'm certain; he is just larger than most other, uhhh, people."

There was a huff of breath and the two different machine's attentions were brought back to the now armored being that was drawing first breath in this new life.

.

It was as if nothing had happened. The local news was playing over the Trans-Net and a tac-pad sat in front of him with his augmentee orders. An army detachment? He may have scored well with the field exams in simulators aboard a few ships he worked on, but actual duty now? Alien invaders everywhere and they want to put a salty sailor on the ground? He chuckled to himself.

Sudden noises from somewhere else in the home drew his attention away from the pad in front of him. He watched silently as two little blond girls came careening into the room around the corner. One of them slid across the floor in a panic as her socks refused purchase. The other one took advantage of this and latched onto one of his legs.

"Papa! Papa! Papa! She said I can't see mama! She is lying!" They both began yelling at the same time. One of them clearly frustrated and the other distraught.

"I don't care what either of you said, now behave, the ship leaves early tomorrow, are you finished packing?" His tone was exasperated and he looked up at the ceiling briefly as if saying, "Lord why now?"

"I finished!" The second girl spoke up. Her blond ponytail bobbing up and down vigorously.

The other one just shook her head and her ponytail swung into her twin sister. Causing the two to start squabbling all over again. He silenced them with a hand on each of their heads.

"Melissa, stop making your sister cry, and go help her pack. You both are going to go see momma, and you may be staying at your nan's for a little longer than I told you." He smiled at them and they both took off running.

When he turned back to look at the news he heard a high pitched screech and his heart nearly stopped. His head whipped around and that's when things stopped making sense. The wall between the hallway and kitchen had been blown out and he could see the sand of Mars piling up inside.

"Melissa! Erica! Where are you!" He yelled out and launched to his feet, a rifle appearing in his arms.

Cabal. He saw them standing by his daughters. They weren't doing anything, but talking in their squawking voices. He let out a yell as he launched himself at them, but one of them was ready as it tackled him back to the ground. The other one began to squawk again, in English?

"Keep him from thrashing about! He'll tear himself apart!"

"I really think you put some extra bits in on this one! Or something on backwards!" The one on him yelled back. Why did it sound like an Exo?

A panicked voice rang out in his mind, they were in his home! His head swiveled and he saw his girls take off into the winds of the dunes.

"No! Don't! I have to get to them!" He yelled out as he wrestled with the Psion.

"Calm down! Get to who- Oof!" The Psion was cut off as he felt a fist crash into his chest and then his face and was sent sprawling to the side.

This was the opening he needed, his man's thoughts were all in shorthand. Get the girls away, breath, left hand, right foot, right hand, left foot, and repeat. It carried on this way until he rolled out of the ruined building and his momentum carried him down a dune and landing on his chest. With a heavy grunt he pushed himself up and unsteadily got to his feet and took off at a shaky run towards the Dome.

"Wait! Guardian! Come back!" The other Psion cried out as the man took off. Seeing as he wasn't returning, he took off after the newly revived human.

.

Joanna pushed the last of the Legionnaires to the ground as it bled out and looked over the massacre that had occurred. She let out a contented sigh as she admired her handiwork for the day.

"Hey, I got a lock on where Sushi went." Entity spoke up from where he leaned against his Sparrow. "He left his beacon on and is close to the Dome. Looks like he is about to enter it actually."

"Well fucking stop him! There are Vex and Cabal in there as far as we know." She stomped her way over to Entity. "Don't you dare say he isn't our problem, you suggested we bring him along because he was a damn good shot. But he is a Warlock, he wouldn't last ten seconds in there alone."

The Hunter considered her claims closely before shrugging and pulling out his Ghost. He let it encrypt the channel before speaking to it.

"Hey Sushi, you satisfy your curiosity yet?" He asked dully.

"He's getting away, Warlock!"

"I know that! How come you can't control your own Guardian?"

Entity looked up at Joanna and he could 'feel' the bewildered look she was giving the Ghost in his hand for the transmission. He suppressed his own sigh as he decided to repeat himself. This time Sushi heard him.

"Oh yeah, it's satisfied, plus my jaw seems to be unhinged too!" The other Exo yelled into the broadcast. "The asshole punched me as soon as he saw me! But he went running into the Shattered Dome! We have to get him out before he gets torn to pieces!"

Entity sighed as he cut the feed and mounted his Sparrow. Joanna did the same and the two blasted off across the wasteland to find the Warlock and the baby Guardian who was causing him so many problems.

.

It was dark in here, but it didn't matter, the location was familiar to him. After winding his way through several hallways and finally settling to slide down a wall in what appeared to be a small pub back when people lived here. The man began to think, and something was wrong.

"Where did they go? When they'd take off they always came to Dexter's." He asked muttered slowly.

Them more he thought, the more this made less and less sense. The last thing he could remember was a Cabal tank, a rocket launcher and the explosion leading to nothing. But he couldn't remember his name, or figure out why he was still alive. The explosion should have killed him and left nothing but scattered remains left. So why was he chasing his daughters? They should be at their nan's.

In the dim light he looked at his hand, the armored glove was unfamiliar, a different make than he was wearing in the bunker. He clenched his fist and felt a small surge of energy rush through him and towards his hand. He banged his head into the wall as he tried to push himself away and throw the electricity that appeared in his hand.

"What the fuck?!" He cried as he reached up with his other armored hand to feel his right hand. It didn't hurt, no it felt fine, if not even better. His thoughts were brought to a close as he heard boots echoing in the halls and it was followed by subdued voices.

"Are you sure he went this way?" He recognized it from earlier and pressed himself closer to the wall. The Cabal were after him still.

"Yes, Sushi, I make my living mainly tracking and doing things you can't do. Which right now seems to be a lot." This was another one? It sounded a hell of a lot like Romeo, but being Cabal they probably weren't going to be as friendly. He needed a plan.

He edged away from the door frame and peered around the room. He nearly pulled back in shock when he spotted what looked like to be skeletons in the corner. Huddled together in obvious fear. They were only briefly seen as the search lights that were being used moved on.

"Well shit. Split up and search these rooms. I doubt you could even track him in here Entity." A female voice ordered. Cabal had women?

"Who died and made you Queen of the Reef?" The second voice questioned.

"Just fucking do it! The faster we do this the faster we get Sushi out of his search with Twinkles here!" The woman angrily responded.

"I am a Ghost! Not a Twinkles!" That was the other Psion from earlier. He was trapped.

The voices seemed to be drifting closer as well as the lights. Snapping him out of his thought process he looked around quickly and got back to his feet. Racing across the room he vaulted over the bar and right onto a pile of rubble. Creating a clattering that echoed for a solid twenty seconds. As he tried to press himself further into the backside of the bar he felt his hand brush something. Grabbing it he realized it was an auto rifle grip. Pulling on it he heard the rubble shift slightly as the damaged rifle came free, it wasn't pretty but it had a magazine already loaded and at least a third full. He finished inspecting the clip and slid it back in and prepared himself.

"I know I heard something from in here."

"I think you are just paranoid, Joanna."

"No. She is right, I can feel his Light coming from this room. He is hiding in here."

"Thank you, Twinkles. Now can you pinpoint him or are we going to have to dig around here?"

"You won't get that chance." The new Guardian announced to them as he stood up from his hiding place aiming his rifle at the one with a hood and cape.

They all raised their firearms in return at him and an awful silence followed.

**Post A/N: Yep, cliffhanger, cause I'm an ass. Well Entity belongs to Reilly.216. So I'll be opening for some OC's here in the near future so prepare your Guardians.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This one took a little longer and I apologize. I travel a lot for work and for those of you who are reading this I hope your patience has been rewarded with this new chapter which is now my longest. I don't own Destiny, Activision and Bungie do. Entity is being loaned to me by a good man named Reilly.216. Make sure to check out his story, that is Entity's origin, which I think is coming together nicely. Enjoy.**

CH 3: Two minds that merge

The howling winds from outside the dome could be heard in the silence that had formed from the cluster of Guardians. All of their weapons were raised and ready, anticipating who would fire first. The three different colored Guardians aimed at the single bare white armor of the man behind the bar top.

"By the Queen…" The woman spoke up suddenly while lowering her shotgun, and quickly elbowed the hooded one.

"Entity, you can be the only Hunter to have claimed to have found Sasquatch!" She followed up with a fit of rolling laughter.

"Who is-? What?" The Exo who sounded like Romeo responded confused, and lowered his own rifle in response.

Seeing as the other two weren't taking this situation as seriously anymore, Sushi lowered his scout rifle and let it dematerialize so he could raise his hands in a nonthreatening manner. He took a few tentative steps towards the still cautious and apparently paranoid man before him.

The movement caught the other man's attention and the man whipped his rifle around to point it at the one he had punched earlier. The man, not a Cabal he mentally reminded himself, had stopped suddenly and raised his hands even higher. With no other motions made, and no shots obviously being fired, the other two decided to leave Sushi be with the mystery man.

"Look man… Calm down and we'll get you out of here and back to Earth." Sushi quietly requested of the man. "I promise."

After a few more brief tense moments the man nodded and complied with slowly lowering his rifle. He held on to the rifle tightly as he was ready to raise it again in a heartbeat. Prepared if the other two came back and he needed to fight. Kicking those negative thoughts aside he made his way from behind the counter and towards Sushi and the pair of small floating bundles of angles and lights.

"So, this may be a little rushed. But I need to form with you." One of the little glowing things spoke up. The little eye it had seemed to focus on him and he froze like a deer in the headlights, his rifle half raised in caution. The Ghost paused in it's advance towards him.

"You need to do what?" His voice croaked and sounded rough due to lack of use. His raised tone caught the attention of the other two and they returned from their conversation outside the room.

"Did you hear that? Sounded like a fucking Baron." Joanna muttered "You get your vocal chords all messed up or something when your Ghost put you back together?"

"I what?" He croaked in a slightly upset tone. "I don't remember-" He stopped talking as the memories came flooding back to him and he realized that he had indeed, died.

"Well that doesn't matter, we have to get you to the Tower where it's safe." Entity spoke up.

"I'd say you could handle yourself because of your sheer size, and according to Sushi you got quite a punch, but your gear is absolute shit. So let's get you home."

It was during this conversation that one of the Ghosts had rocketed forward before anyone could react and broke apart into motes of light before the man who was now backpedaling and cursing loudly.

"What the hell?!" He shouted in confusion. Raising his rifle again and pivoting in spot to find the little floating object.

"Oh this guy is hilarious." Joanna stifled some more laughter and pantomimed wiping away a tear. "But seriously, let's get out of here. We have to turn in this bounty, and we may have pissed off the local Primus by killing some of his Siege Dancers." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder for added emphasis.

"Sushi, you can take him in your jump ship, since you found him." Entity ordered before pulling out his Ghost and calling his ship to put himself into orbit.

Joanna, still laughing followed him up and left Sushi with the new Guardian. Sushi silently put his hand on the man's shoulder, feeling the man tense up and nearly leap out from under his hand, and let his Ghost pull them into his ship in orbit. The man thrashed about as he felt himself being pulled apart at an atomic level and back together before he hit the deck plates of the inside of a ship with a crash. His head swiveled as he rose quickly to his feet and looked around for the mysterious Sushi that had brought him here.

"Don't worry; it will take quite a few hours for us to return to Earth from here. So get some rest, you'll be busy when we get to Earth later." A voice, Sushi's, was heard over the small ship's PA. "Plus, we are apologizing now for having to leave you at the Tower once we get there."

"What do you mean?" A hesitant voice asked the air.

"Well, any new Guardian doesn't exactly have a class when they are brought back. So the Vanguard puts them through training and combat scenarios to see where you would fit best." The voice of a Ghost informed him in Sushi's place.

"Who are you? Where are you is the better question." The solid sound of his boots clunking on the metal reverberated within the hold.

"Don't worry Guardian; I'm a Ghost, your Ghost specifically. Your new companion and best friend in this world." The little bunch of angles with an eye, a Ghost, formed in front of his helmet. "I'll be guiding you when we get back to the Tower, and I'm sure I can fill you in on the few hundred years you have been gone." The Ghost paused as it seemed to rotate it's body a little. "I hope you don't mind, but I forwarded some of the data I have on you to the Vanguard as well as to the Guardians who found you."

"Well I'm sure that won't do them much good. I'm a dead Petty Officer from the United Earth Navy detached to Mars. What will they do with that? Promote me? I'm a friggin' zombie." He pointed out to his Ghost.

Seeing as this conversation wasn't going to advance he sat down in a crash seat and pulled the harness over his arms and strapped himself in tightly. He looked up at the Ghost who seemed to be floating awkwardly in the hold with him. He tried to ignore the pivoting object but gave in with a frustrated sigh.

"Alright! At least tell me what I'm going to see at this, 'Tower', when I get there."

"Well, let's start off with the Traveler." The Ghost began excitedly.

.

Dreamless sleep was always a bad sign that was a solid theory that some philosophic man may have made at some time. To the man now living in a world not too familiar, it meant less sleep and more worries when he awoke. As his mind processed that he was waking up and how he had drifted off, he came to a realization. He didn't have a name that he could remember. What was he going to call himself now? He racked his brain for any name that he could remember, Romeo? No, that was a terrible name. Well, for him anyways.

He continued to pick at his brain for a while before he felt the sudden weight of gravity on him. Not the artificial one that the ship had pushed on him, but planetary gravity. Names could wait, he was at Earth, or so he hoped.

With a growl, he undid the harness and pulled his body out of the crash seat. The ship tilted and he braced himself accordingly as he felt the ship now slowing and pitching up to touch down with a thump.

His head swiveled to the side as he heard a hatch open and the now revealed Exo climbing down a ladder into the cargo bay from what he assumed was the flight station above. The Exo's yellow optics locked onto his polarized visor and seemed to be calculating something that was lost on him. This was new and strange to him, Exo were a smart bunch, but this seemed far too sentient than he had remembered any Exo he worked with being. He would investigate about that at a later time, just another question to his never ending pool of questions.

He returned to what was happening as Sushi pressed the release button and the rear ramp started to lower towards the landing pad beneath the jump ship. The Exo didn't hesitate or wait to explain before he took off to get down and into the hangar proper. Only stopping briefly at the base of the ramp to wave the cautious Guardian forward and coax him out of the ship.

That was when he noticed the sounds of the early morning crews filled the air as more Guardians poured in to the hangar to head out for morning bounties or to go talk to the maintenance crews. Only a few seemed to stop and notice the new arrivals, and one of them was courteous enough to wave in their direction. It wasn't returned, and it only caused the man's face to scrunch up in a frown.

"Who are all these people?" He quietly asked Sushi when he caught up to him.

The Exo looked up at all the people as he passed by a cleaning droid and went up a flight of stairs. Looking back into the hangar he shrugged nonchalantly. He stopped at the landing to look at a group of Hunters as they passed.

"They are all Guardians just like you. So don't be too hostile towards them."

"Sometimes they are a bit useless on the field though, and only do low level bounties." Joanna spoke up as she appeared behind them. "They make good practice at the Crucible though."

Sushi seemed relaxed in her presence but the appearance of Joanna without her helmet was alarming to the other man. He took an involuntary step back and raised an eyebrow at her appearance. She had a dark blue, almost purple skin tone with bright yellow eyes that glowed. Glowed! She had what appeared to be wiry green facial tattoos that were beneath her glowing eyes.

"What?" She asked him casually.

"The biometrics I'm pulling right now off of him suggest that he is alarmed with your presence." His Ghost's voice seemed to resonate within his helmet and out the speakers. It was followed by the Ghost materializing in front of him.

"Thanks for the info Twinkles." She nodded to the Ghost before redirecting her attention. "So you got a problem with me? Never seen an Awoken before?" She took a threatening step closer towards the larger man. Whose sole response was a quick shake of his head suggesting that he didn't.

"Will you kids behave?" Entity grabbed Joanna by the shoulder and tugged her back slightly. "I need to talk with Sushi, so will you take-" He hesitated and looked at the other Guardians for a hint.

"I don't know…" The taller man admitted. "I just remember I was in the Human Navy and I recall my family, things like that. It's just my name doesn't come up at all in my memories." His helmeted head lowered slightly as he remembered he didn't even know who he was anymore.

"Striker." Joanna piped in.

"Please don't"

"Oh dear, no, you can't give anyone else nicknames."

"That's just dumb, where did that name even come from?"

All of these rejections came at the same time and Joanna dragged the toe of her boot on the ground while she grumbled a few obscenities before grabbing the larger man's arm and pulling him out of the hangar and into the courtyard beyond.

"C'mon, let's get you to the Vanguard and find out what you can be. While you do that, I'll figure out a name for you sailor boy." She seemed to almost be skipping as she walked him past a gathering of Guardians kicking around a large purple ball.

"Please don't call me that either."

.

Entity and Sushi watched as the two Guardians left. The tension between the two was strong and most of the Guardians who passed them gave them a wide berth. Sushi turned towards Entity's before looking down sadly.

"Look." Sushi began. "I know I told you I'd think about it for a while and that I would take on some more bounties with you." Sushi hesitated for a moment to gather his thoughts. "But I am done. My joints aren't as young as yours anymore and my desire to hold this rifle of mine is going away."

Sushi could feel the disappointment rolling off of Entity like an avalanche at this point. Entity, however, put his hands on his hips as he thought of how to convey his thoughts clearly.

"You're a good Guardian, Sushi, why give it up?" Entity asked finally.

"We all help people in any way we can." Sushi started. "Most aid each other with camaraderie in fire teams. So you should learn to trust the Guardians you serve with, we are all a family now. Exo, Awoken, or Human it doesn't matter anymore. We were all born in the light of the Traveler. So serve your brothers and sisters in arms. The Cryptarchs gave me an offer to join them. Guardians need the aid of the Chryptarchs, so it's not like I'm just handing out armor shaders to everyone. That is how I can help my brothers and sisters of the Light now."

"I do make them work a lot, don't I?" Entity let out a bark of laughter but let it quickly die down.

"So you're done with the Guardian work now?"

Sushi thought about that for a moment and shook his head.

"Never, I wasn't brought back to life just sift through ruins and collect dust behind a desk. If the Traveler needs me to fight again I will know where to find my rifle." Sushi solidified his remark by materializing his rifle and inspecting it. "But until that point I won't need it, so, here." He held it out for Entity to take it. "I want a professional to watch over my gun, I doubt you'll use it all that often. But that way if things go wrong I'll be coming to find you."

Entity looked at the gun and back at Sushi's yellow eyes. Giving the equivalent of a sigh of defeat from an Exo, he took the rifle and looked it over briefly, noting that it was deceptively heavy in his hands. The bronze colored rifle was heavy in the front, countering the weight of the bullets that would be loaded in the rear of the rifle.

"What do you load this thing with, bricks? Or old fashioned slugs? No wonder you can't ever keep up with most fire teams." Entity teased as he dematerialized the weapon into storage in his Ghost. "But Sushi, it has been an honor to have been on the field with you." He nodded towards the Warlock Exo before, he too, left to go about his business.

Sushi stood in the hangar for a while longer. Watching the Guardians going around preparing to leave or visit the different faction leaders, a few had noticed him standing alone by a small stack of crates and had acknowledged him. He looked down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them before nodding to accept his new fate. He was ready.

.

Joanna led the new Guardian down some more stairs and into the Vanguard HQ and motioned for him to go forward. She began to slide back and almost managed to get away before a short and bald black lady had stopped her.

"I see you have returned, Titan, and had brought a friend." Her voice was cool and controlled. The feeling that she was veiling her words put Joanna and her companion on edge. "I also hope you brought back what I loaned to you a while ago?" The venom in her question was almost tangible.

"Well. I did use your shotgun, yes, and it worked well. I, uh, left it in the jump ship and will go and get it. But first, here is a new Guardian that needs to be guided into the Vanguard." Her voice was surprisingly muted and rushed as she practically shoved the man forward and into the table.

Before the lady could respond Joanna had vanished back the way she had come, leaving a few amused stares from the other Vanguard leaders.

"Well if she says is true and I am keen in believing it, welcome to the Tower Guardian." A large Awoken male in decorated armor addressed him from across the room. "I am Commander Zavala, head of the Vanguard for the Titans."

Seeing the ribbons and that combined with the rank forced an instinctual reaction and the man snapped to attention. His armored heels crashing together to produce a large cracking sound that surprised the Vanguard leaders as they exchanged looks.

"It seems that you are already familiar with military protocol, Guardian. It will be good to have another warrior of the Light who shows at least a little respect for their superiors." An Exo who had now approached him stated with some dry humor. "Name is Cayde-6, head of the Vanguard for the Hunters." He folded his arms as he leaned against the table.

"We hope that you are up to the task that will be laid on your shoulders." The woman spoke up again. "I am Ikora Rey, head of the Vanguard for the Warlocks. What is your name?" She waved offhandedly towards her Ghost who appeared to be trying to get her attention.

"I don't remember my name, things are hazy, but I am trying to remember." The large man let his helmet dematerialize and allowed his bald head to feel the crisp air that flowed in behind him. He reached up to rub his temples in frustration.

"Well, don't worry. It may take some time, but it seems you still have some memories." Ikora spoke up trying to comfort him. "Some Guardians don't even remember their past lives, so you are counted among the lucky."

Commander Zavala reached over and tapped a few commands into a small pad. "But we have to assess your skills before we turn you loose. I just sent a message to the officer in charge at the barracks for new Guardians. You will report there and training will begin at 0600, so rest up tonight." The strong voice of the Commander made an impact on the new Guardian as he returned to attention. "Now get going, Guardian."

The voices of the Vanguard followed him out of the room and died down as the new recruit made his way through the Tower and towards where the barracks was located on the map his Ghost provided. It lead him towards a large building with a large plaza and a field beside it. Swallowing his nervousness he stepped up to the door and watched it open automatically.

A foyer is what greeted him and behind it sat an Exo Titan who flicked her green optics up to analyze him for a moment before nodding to the side.

"The compartments are that way for the males and you have some clothes provided for you at your rack. Pick any open one, since the clothes will fit anyone. Good luck." She added the last part as an afterthought and went back to her duties as a watch stander in what he would call a quarterdeck.

The compartment was at the end of the hallway and it was nearly full of dozing Humans and Awoken. Several Exo sat on their racks and seemed to be studying something with their Ghosts. What he noted gratefully was the silence. No one spoke, and it was nearly deafening and he enjoyed that. With this silence greeting him he approached a rack and let his Ghost pull his armor into storage before quickly changing into blue shorts and a tight grey shirt with the mark of the Vanguard on the left chest.

With one last look at the slumbering Guardians-in-training, he climbed into his rack and drifted back into sleep.

.

A sudden pounding was heard and it startled the slender Awoken Warlock from her studies. Nearly knocking over her desk lamp she glared through her glasses at the door. When the pounding resumed she marked the spot she was just reading with her finger and went to open the door. Ready to tear apart whomever was dumb enough to interrupt a Warlock during their study periods.

The door slid open to allow the short form of Joanna to push her way in without a word. The Warlock let out an indignant squawk as she was shoved aside by the other Awoken.

"What is the meaning of this, Jo?" She managed to finally get out.

"I need help. I need to think of a name, a good name for a big and strong individual." She seemed to be more musing to herself other than talking to her friend. "C'mon Archivia! Think!"

Archivia glared daggers before resetting her glasses. She opened her mouth to respond with something witty but closed her mouth before looking at the book in her hand. She paused as she opened it again and gazed at the words.

"Well anything else to describe him would help a lot, Jo." Archivia pointed out.

"He is a big Human, unhinged an Exo's jaw with one punch through the helmet. He also was apparently in the old Earth's Navy." Joanna, Jo, paced around and counted off the individual aspects with her fingers. "How about something that has to do with water? What do you have there?" She asked, finally noticing the book.

"This is a history book on the country of France and the surrounding areas." She commented as she browsed the contents. "How about this, an old word from the Normans, Ras, it means a strong sea current or wave. Well, something to that extent." She looked up at Jo questioningly.

"I like it, but no. It needs more spice. Something that pops, you know?" Jo was now standing next to Archivia. "How about this? It's another way to spell it and it makes him sound more like a tidal wave than a ripple that Ras would make him sound." She pointed to the word in question and looked up to her friend.

"Raz? That doesn't make it that much different."

"I like it. I'm going to call him Raz, I'll tell him the good news tomorrow." Jo skipped off and back out the door.

"May whatever God he prays to have mercy on his soul." Archivia commented before closing the book again with a resounding thud.

**Post A/N: I hope you enjoyed it, Archivia belongs to RC927. So I now will be opening up my story to OC's, I will need at least two or three fire teams worth of Guardians. Plus alien OC's in this story. As always, please leave a review and let me know how I did. Keep on keepin' on everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This is a fast update, but it should hold people over until I post again next Sunday. I feel it may be a bit rushed though, and I know that this story is a little slow. But I enjoy my pacing for it. I hope you enjoy and as always I don't own Destiny. Bungie and Activision do.**

CH 4: Initiation to a new life

"Papa! Papa!" A pair of shrill voices was heard over the constant noise of the space port. "Can we have one of those?" The twin girls pointed to what looked like a tangled mess of tubes but was clearly a puzzle of some sort.

The man let go of their hands and scooted them towards the small stand so he could get a closer look at the toy. Definitely some sort of puzzle, probably made by some sadistic mind bending dude. This would take forever to solve for a child, and would wind up tossed under a bed forgotten.

"Why do you want this?"

"It has so many pretty colors!" They replied and put their little fists on their hips in unison.

"Alright, alright, you two win. I'll get you the toy for your flight. Just don't tell your nan, deal?"

The girls nodded excitedly at the prospect of a secret deal behind their nan's back. He sighed as he took the toy to the register and paid for it, a very high price for some cheap rubber, but he bought it for his little girls. After handing it back to the children they stayed near the stand and he enjoyed watching them trying to figure out how to untangle the whole thing.

"Hey, papa? We'll bring you a present from nan's home okay?" One of the twins, Erica, suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah! Like a seashell! Nan told us how you had never been to Earth before. How come you never visit her?" Melissa piped in as she passed the bundle to her sister.

"It's true; I was born on Mars, as were my parents. I've never had the time to go to your momma's home when she- When she was still here." He trailed off as he shook that thought away. "Well, with your nan, it's complicated, sort of. Nan is your momma's mother. Not mine. So I don't have to see her often."

He was looking down at his girls when he was startled by the sounds of yells, shouts, whistles, and stomping boots filling the air. The startled man's eyes snapped open to the cries of the few new Guardians all around him as the lights came on and blinded everyone who was already stumbling out of their racks in confusion.

Through all the loud noises a few Guardians had put on their running shoes and stood at attention on a thick black line. Others began to follow suit in various suits of disheveled dress and ragged expressions. Many groaned in agony at being awoken early in the morning and the manner in which they did it.

"Rise and shine you little baby Guardians!" A feminine voice called out. "You are the fresh new batch that the Vanguard cobbled together to fill the ranks of the Guardians for the Tower! You should feel honored!"

All of the eyes fell on an Exo wearing what appeared to be a dark gray uniform and a Vanguard patch with a silver orb behind it, the Traveler. Her light blue optics passed over all of the tired faces of the Humans and Awoken, pausing over each one to memorize the features. She continued with the steadfast and blank looks of the other Exo in the room.

"My name is Saer-34, and we are going to get to know each other very well this next week, so I hope you don't feel the need to be antisocial! You might break my little mechanical heart!" A batch of chuckles could be heard from the veteran's behind her and a few of the newbies in front of her. "But you will not call me by my name, ever! You will call me ma'am! We are, for the more sensitive inclined pansy asses in the room, your instructor. But anyone with a pair or with the right knowledge of what is going on, we are your handlers! We will take this week to mold you into capable Guardians who know what in the Hell you are doing out there! Are you tracking?" She had shouted all of this, and many had a slightly upset look about their face for being yelled at so early in the morning.

"Yes ma'am!" A small chorus of Guardians called out, not even close to half had responded.

"Sweet Speaker on a Sunday you are all hopeless!" She placed her hands on where her temples would be and looked down for a moment before going on. "Now we are going to go and feed the Humans and Awoken, I know we Exo don't need food but you will join them! One team one fight everyone!" She pivoted on her booted heel and towards the door where a pair of humans in the same uniform as her stepped aside. "Now form up in a single file line based on height! I want the tall bastards in the back, little ones up front!"

The mass confusion that followed was amusing at first. But to a few it grew tedious as a few began to argue who was shorter than whom.

"Your spot seems to be secured back here, doesn't it?" A large Awoken male asked the lone man standing in the back.

"Well, yes, everyone here is a little on the short side to me." The man replied, looking curiously at the Awoken who approached him.

"Name is Corde. What can I call you?" The Awoken held his hand out to shake the Human's.

"Corde? That's a new one. But I don't know mine. Everyone has just been calling me Guardian until now." He shrugged. He honestly couldn't remember his own name and it frustrated him. He still took Corde's hand and shook it firmly.

"Well I'm sure it will come to you. My Ghost called me that after he found my body tangled up in a bunch of wires in an old jump ship." Corde told him while leaning in close conspicuously, eliciting a strange look from the larger man. "There's another way to get your name too, have someone name you from something you did or something about you."

"Someone tried. It was horrible." The dry remark came out with a sigh.

Corde laughed it off as the line had apparently been figured out and everyone took off to go get food in them before their day actually started.

.

"If you are going to puke go and do it in a trash can or in the bathroom! Not on my damn floors!" The Exo woman from earlier yelled at a Human that had nearly collapsed on the track they had been all running on.

"Sorry ma'am-"

"Sorry ma'am?! Do I look sorry to you? Now get your ass in gear and clean this up! Move it!"

The man took off at a shaky run to look for a mop and a bucket, leaving the instructor behind to shake her head sadly. She turned back to watch the rest of the next great hope of the Light struggle going around the track. She tracked a few that seemed to be moving better than others, and some who were in the same condition as the man who just ran off. They were supposed to be checking the physical capabilities of the new Guardians, help in the selection process for the classes of Guardians.

She watched as another Guardian collapsed in a heap on the other side of the track only to have another instructor rush over to encourage the lady who had fallen down. She couldn't quite make out the curse words the other instructor was using, but he wasn't holding back. She knew it was harsh, but they couldn't coddle these people, they couldn't afford to anyways. The Darkness was pushing on them all the time and these people formed what would be the sword and shield of the City.

Her attention was once again diverted to the only group that had yet to stop in the run she was putting them through. They were no longer in formation, but they stuck together and if one started to fall out they would slow down and offer words of encouragement. Most of them were Exos, but a good mix of Humans and Awoken were amongst them. It was then that she noticed something, they were singing a cadence. The largest Human she had ever seen was running just off to the side of the group and was calling a good paced cadence that they would all repeat back.

"Run with your left! Left! Left right le-yeft!"

"Left! Left! Keep it in step now!"

"Now follow with that left! Left! Lefty-Right a low right!"

Definitely not in formation, or in tune but at least they were in step and working together. She had hope for this group at least and it felt good.

"Alright everyone! Hydrate and form up in five! We're gonna cool you all off now!" She watched as they all made a mad dash for the water fountains and the bathrooms. They were all silent aside from the huffing and puffing that could be heard from across the room. It didn't take long for the group to have reformed themselves in front of her and the other instructors, all still huffing and puffing.

"Alright everyone, pushup position! Let's go!" She dropped down as well as the other instructors to do the pushups with the new Guardians. "Down! Up!" She started the count and led them through pushups, situps, jumping jacks and eventually stretches. That was when she sent them off to get lunch.

"Jesus man! Talk about working us to death! I already died once, and I don't plan on doing it any time soon!" A rather sick looking man, probably the one from earlier who had puked, cried out. "Why are we even doing all of this? Aren't we supposed to be you know? Saving the galaxy or something like that?

"You don't even know what you are going to be yet, for all we know you could end up being a Warlock and cooped up behind a desk for the rest of your returned life." Corde retorted as they made their way back to the barracks building. Nudging his now new friend in the ribs he nodded. "Don't you agree, Jukebox?"

"Juke-? Just why am I hearing this?" He asked around a laugh. "That is worse than what I heard yesterday when I was brought back to life."

"Just hear me out!" Corde pleaded. "You know a lot of songs for someone who can't remember his name, and all those songs are old." The smile on the Awoken's face spread from one side to the other. "So I'm calling you Jukebox."

"I don't think it will stick, ever." He countered.

"I don't know about that. I like the sound of it. Jukebox, it has a good ring to it." The sudden appearance of the Exo instructor sent both of them ramrod straight and stared straight ahead as she came about in front of them. "As you were, Guardians, we aren't that formal around here."

"What can we do for you ma'am?" One of them asked as the pair visibly relaxed and they looked down at her smaller frame with slight apprehension.

"You can relax, Jukebox, I'm just trying to get to know the new batch of Guardians a little better. You're only going to be here for a week anyways." She paused as she looked between the two. "You never know, I might pick one of you two for my future fire team. We Exo live for a long time, and all those Guardians over there are evaluating you too. They hope to get some new talent to watch their backs, so they are looking for the best, as am I. Good luck gentlemen."

The pair watched her turn and go, only to exchange a look between them before taking off to go grab some food before the afternoon training and evaluations began. Mental training and standard knowledge was what was going to be covered until dinner.

.

"You're going to recruit him aren't you?" A pregnant pause sat between Archivia and Joanna. "Why, jo? You saw him out there! He is a lumbering giant and not even all that fast. We need someone like a Hunter and with how he is built he will obviously be a Titan." Archivia was pointing down in the training arena where all the newer Guardians were receiving what appeared to be time to study and were sitting in the grass with holopads in little groups.

"Hey! At least he's reading! Look! What Titan do you know reads?" Joanna snapped back at Archivia.

"Until he picks a class, Jo, none that I have ever encountered." Archivia deadpanned.

"That's exactly my point!" She paused for a moment. "Hey!" Jo whined back at her friend.

The pair was currently leaning against a rail on the balcony of the barracks overlooking the newer Guardians. Several other Guardians were also present, watching and taking notes on the freshly risen. But most of them were there to watch the younger Guardians trying to figure out what was going on. That was always the funniest part, in Jo's opinion, and especially on hand to hand combat training day.

"Well I think we have the right time now to go down and talk to him." Jo added before grabbing onto the rail.

"We can't go down there!" Archivia warned. "Plus, you just want to go tell him his name you chose for him. That is what has you all antsy anyways." She stated matter of factly.

"So? This is better than that dig job you wanted to do in the remains of old Canada. By the Queen! Who wants to go there? It's fucking cold this time of year!" The short Awoken ranted to her friend before mounting the rail and leaping off down to the ground below.

"Damnit! I'm not bailing you out if the handlers catch you!" Archivia called out to her before crossing her arms over her chest. It didn't even take a full minute before she caved. "Shit. Wait for me!" She shouted after her as she grabbed the rail and flung herself over it.

Archivia had no problem catching up to Jo and gave the short woman a scowl as she saw the shit eating grin on the other woman's face.

"Not a word, you little twerp." Archivia threatened before snapping her head forward looking for the man Jo wanted to call Raz.

She was indeed curious about this man, someone who seemed to have been dead for a long time and was brought back on Mars. He may have answers to questions her library may not be able to tell her. Plus, Jo was buzzing about this man and how strong he was. Unhinging Sage-22's , or Sushi's, jaw through his helmet was pretty impressive. She would never reveal this information to Jo even on her deathbed; the woman would never let it go.

"Oh! There he is, and he is with someone almost his size! Look! Sasquatch and the abominable snowman are best friends!" Jo nearly squealed in laughter.

The pair did stick out; the Human was just massive and had an authoritative air about him, while the Awoken was a very light blue with a shaggy white hair that looked like a wig placed on wrong. It was a nearly comedic sight. Before Archivia could stop her energetic friend, the little woman had taken off at a sprint.

"Hey! Sasquatch! Guess who!" She called out before slamming into his back, forcing him to double over with a pained grunt.

"I don't know, but whoever you are you're heavy." He breathed out with an exasperated sigh.

A quick thud was heard followed by a pained curse with another man laughing at his friend's misfortune. After rubbing his sore head he turned to see two Awoken women, one he recognized the other he didn't. He couldn't recall the first's name however, it was only mentioned briefly before he was taken away to see the Vanguard leaders.

"I'm Jo! How can you not remember that?" She exclaimed at the blank look he was giving her. "But beside that, this is my friend, Archivia." She motioned to the other Awoken who nodded her head but kept her distance.

Both of the men waved slowly and exchanged looks, almost unsure of what to do in this situation.

"But all kidding aside we came up with a name for you! Aren't you excited?"

"No." His simple reply set Corde and Archivia off into a fit of laughter before Jo punched the Human square in the back of the head again.

"At least listen to it before you reject it, Frazzle!" She exclaimed.

"Is that really the best you could come up with?" He asked, disappointed.

"Nah, I'm just screwin' with ya. I think Razzle Dazzle is more your style."

"Oh my and here I thought Jukebox was a good one!" Corde cut in with a snort trying to contain his laughter. "But this one is just full of terrible ideas! I like her!"

"Everyone's a fuckin' critic these days." Jo complained with a turn of her head and sniffed in mock sadness. After a moment to appear to regain her bearings she turned back to them. "But seriously, I came up with an awesome name for you, Raz. It's an old Earth word in French. Totally badass I think."

"Norman."

"Whatever you say, I don't care."

The man sat there thinking it over, visibly weighing his options on the name he could take versus what she could come up with in the future if she stuck around. Having decided what he hoped wasn't a bad decision he rose to his feet with some effort and dusted off his legs of grass.

"Raz, huh?" He asked the tiny Awoken lady. She nodded enthusiastically, her light hair swinging back and forth. "Alright, what the hell, let's go with it."

Jo let out a shrill cry and pumped her fist in the air to emphasize her victory. She stopped herself at a look from Archivia and straightened out her shirt before offering her hand to Raz.

"Well Raz, I look forward to working with you in the future." The man's hand completely enveloped hers and she shook it firmly. "Archivia looks forward to it too, since she'll be with me from now on." She added with a tilt to her head.

.

The rest of the week passed by in a painful blur for Raz. They did hand to hand combat training and it turned out to be a tournament style fighting system. Guardians were pitted against one another and even lethal blows were authorized. This surprised everyone but they realized that as long as the Ghosts had something to work with they could be brought back to life.

Raz made it pretty far into the sparring matches and so did Corde, but their match was called off by Saer who said it would take too long. She later kicked both of their asses just to prove that speed and agility when used right can outdo the brute force and tenacity that they had both shown.

This training was followed by weapons and explosives training. They had received the basic weapons kits and were instructed on how to field strip and clean their weapons in case they were stuck out of the City for extended times. The firing range was a blast for most and for some was pure torture. When they got to the heavy weapons some of the smaller Guardian's couldn't even lift the rocket launchers or machine guns.

"See, he just doesn't fight well but he is awesome with guns too! See that handling of the rocket launcher? Pure talent!" Jo gushed as they watched the Guardians pick up sniper rifles.

Archivia kept her mouth shut as she watched the Guardians start to fire down range. That was when she noticed a big issue with Raz. His long range accuracy was absolute crap. Jo's face fell into despair as they watched him fire round after round and some not even hit the target at all.

"Damnit. Damnit. Damnit." Raz muttered with every missed shot, his tone growing louder by the bullet.

This didn't last long as he finally raged and threw his rifle down range and grabbed the closest weapon to him, a machine gun, and fired the belt fed weapon at the target. After releasing over a hundred rounds at the virtual figure at the other end did he finally slam the weapon down and look at his score above him.

**RANGED PROFICIENCY: INADAQUATE**

"What in the hell was that?" Saer came in pushing him aside to see the sniper rifle on the ground near the virtual target blown to actual dust. "Can't you fucking pay attention? It's snipers only, dipshit!" She berated him as she called for the range to be shut down.

"Well at least we know that your spot on our fire team as the marksman is in no danger." Archivia quipped to Jo, who only groaned and put her head in her hands.

"That was terrible, just terrible." She managed to get out. "I've never seen someone so bad with a long range rifle."

That incident was quickly swept under the rug with a signed promise from Raz and from every Guardian present to never speak of this again. This was followed up with training on how to maintain the basic functions of their jump ships, if they had one, and for their Sparrows as well. If they didn't have one of these they were directed to get one as soon as the training was over by speaking to one Amanda Holiday to requisition them. They would have to figure out the payment for the ships and Sparrows with the lady on their own.

The selection ceremony seemed rather anti-climactic for Raz and Corde. The both had selected to become Titans for obvious reasons and were quickly sent to Commander Zavala to receive their first duty assignment and receive their sets of gear from the Vanguard.

It was after Raz had fully kitted himself with his new armor that he took a full look at himself in a standing mirror in the room that had been assigned to him in the Titan's tower that he realized something. It was something so simple he felt rather dumb for not noticing this before. The armor colors were optional and he didn't need to get one anytime soon. He was sure from a sky view that the Tower probably looked like a turned over box of Fruity Pebbles, and he was glad that he wouldn't be counted among the brightly colored idiots.

.

The wastes of Old Russia were never forgiving, but neither were the creatures that inhabited it. The few animals that survived in this wilderness were tough and were avoided if at all possible. But they weren't the only predators out in this wasteland. The Fallen roamed this tundra and were as hostile as the land itself.

A small patrol of Fallen had made its way into what seemed to be a complex of rundown freeways. The roads abandoned when the Houses had finally broken through Earth's orbital defenses and landed on the Human soil. Cars were strewn about the roads with the dead of the fleeing Human's inside, but these bodies did not intrigue this patrol at all. They were after something else; another prey that was worth more to them than the dead.

These Fallen were led by a Captain whose cloak was colored a dark Auburn color which was draped over his armor, this signified that they were members of the House of Thieves. A smaller House who were more set with working in the shadows and striking their opponents when they were wounded.

"Captain." A Vandal called out from one of the flanks. "I do not think the coward is in this sector, we should move on to a more lucrative area." The Vandal had hesitated on his words, unsure on how the stoic Captain would react to the suggestion. "Besides," he began again, "All the patrols in this area have not met with any resistance that we can recall."

There was a brief silence that filled the air before the Captain had closed the distance rapidly to the Vandal and rammed his blade through it's gut. The Vandal sputtered in disbelief and fell back lifeless as the whispy essence of his life escaped out of the wound. Due to the commotion no one noticed the Dreggs standing as the rearguards go missing into the first snowfall.

"Anyone else dare to question the orders we have been given?" The Captain called out the challenge while circling the dead Vandal. "I will see to it that you are disciplined in a like manner." The challenge went unanswered as the rest of the patrol dropped their heads and was quickly herded forward again, closing together with the change of weather and drop of visibility.

As the patrol moved on the Captain began to take stock of a few things. His Dreggs were now missing, and only the Vandals in front of him were still in sight. If they had seen any good salvage they would have let him know, and that was hard to believe since this area was supposedly picked clean. He let out a battle cry to halt the Vandals and that was when he saw it. A grenade landed neatly between the two leading Vandals and killed them in a heartbeat.

The last Vandal that was with him searched the area frantically as he dived into cover behind an adjacent car to the Captain. The Captain's own cover was an overturned truck which allowed him room to stand at full height. Catching the Vandal's attention he motioned for him to move up. The Vandal looked at his wire rifle before nodding and raising it.

Wait.

Wire rifle? His squad wasn't equipped with one. He turned quickly to feel his arc shield take a blow and shatter around him. Cursing he roared as he charged at the Vandal, planning to gut the cretin before the rifle could recharge. He never expected it to fire in the next moment without a buildup.

The Vandal lowered his rifle as he gazed at the corpse of the Captain. Another one of their patrols dead, another Captain in the House of Thieves taken care of and another step closer to his goal. His helmet com buzzed and he put one of his hands up to listen briefly.

"Watcher, can you hear me?"

"Yes, what is it?" The Vandal responded to the Fallen on the other end.

"I am intercepting some Thieves chatter; looks like you took care of that patrol. How did my rifle hold up?"

The Vandal, Watcher, gazed at the rifle for a moment, inspecting it.

"You need to tinker with the heat dispersion; it won't be firing again anytime soon." He responded before taking off into the building blizzard.

"Well bring it back and I'll give you a new one that will be modified. I'll see what I can get on the Thieves for you. I'll see you in a few cycles and bring my rifle; I need that data to improve it for the Kings."

"Thanks Priest Durnisk, it's always a pleasure to do business with you."

**Post A/N: I thank RC for letting me use Archivia and Reilly for letting me use the Watcher. I still have open slots for Guardians and I hope to fill them soon. As always, keep on keepin' on!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This one came a little late, but meh, only a few people seem to be reading this to care enough to comment. This is why I will finish the story on it's original plot path, I almost cut this story to about half, maybe even a third. But I give props to my friends who support me with this nonsense. As always, Bungie and Activision own Destiny, not me, if I did I wouldn't work as much as I do.**

CH 5: Just another cog?

The remains of the Human country of Ukraine always had interested Watcher. He preferred this type of area, the brisk weather, the lush overflow of plants. It was perfect for his secretive nature, and it was also where he ran into the House he did jobs for.

A Fallen Skiff lazily flew over him and drifted to a stop a few hundred feet away as the pilot seemed to have spotted him on a Pike that was loaned to him by their House. The purring engine of the Pike died down as soon as he passed between a series of ruined buildings to approach the now disembarked Fallen Captain and his squad.

"That's far enough, Disowned!" A Dregg called out while raising one of its hands to stop him a mere hundred feet from the Skiff.

"You let an honor less cur address me in that manner?" Watcher snorted at one of the Vandals. Whose only response was a shrug and a non-committal grunt.

"You should feel lucky I am willing to address you, Disowned." The Captain had brushed a Vandal aside and was now standing more than a few heads taller than Watcher. "I should rip out your arms and send you to work in the Shank lines. You piece of filth." The Captain growled as it closed the distance to the smaller Vandal.

The Captain reached up and gently grabbed the end of the auburn fabric that was Watcher's mark. The Vandal didn't deem the Captain worth the effort to react more than to turn his head towards him

"This would look wonderful in my quarters, right under your mounted head. It will serve as a constant reminder to those who face me and don't know their place." The Captain was at a near hiss as he let go of the mark and was slowly reaching for a shock blade.

"Enough!" A far deeper voice called out. "This one is a guest to the Archon Priest, and you will do well to remember this, Captain!" A Baron roughly grabbed the Captain by the horned helmet and jerked him aside, throwing him into the fresh snow.

The Captain gave a defiant growl and watched as his support of Vandals quickly lowered their heads in acquiesce to the Baron. Knowing this battle lost the Captain gave a huff before pulling himself out of the snow and trudging over to the Skiff to await the cast off. He did manage to throw a small shoulder check into the Vandal the Baron was now conversing with.

"Captain, you will not wish to irk me. I will send you to Priest Durnisk to aid in his… Experiments." The Baron let that threat hang in the air as he watched all the troops stiffen in horror at the Archon Priest's name. "Load the Pike up troops! We head to the Ketch, we have our spoils."

"I don't need your aid all the time Baron Grutek." Watcher spoke up behind the massive Fallen. "Though I will say that it is much appreciated."

Grutek swung his cape around as he glared down at the Vandal. The massive piece of navy blue cloth surprised Watcher and forced him to skip backwards to avoid what he assumed was an attack, but dropped his guard when he saw the Baron shaking with mirth.

"I never would have thought you would ever appreciate anything the House of Thunder has done for you, Disowned. No, Watcher, that was the name you prefer now, wasn't it?" The Baron put one of his hands to his helmet in mock thought. "Adopting such a name, curious, don't you think?" He asked as he approached his Skiff and grabbed onto one of the mounting rails.

"No, I don't think about it. That is what you and your House is for, thinking, because the House of Kings is too lazy to do so." This comment sent Grutek into a fit of laughter as the pair entered the main hold and waited for the Dreggs to finish loading the Pike so they could take off.

As the Skiff left the area and turned to the north, Watcher could feel the tension in the air. The whole crew was staring at him and the Baron warily. They wouldn't do anything while their leader was there, but that didn't mean they would be docile. A few of the Dreggs turned their heads as Watcher's gaze passed over them.

The silence was almost as painful as being shot and it lasted for the hour and a half. That it took to get from the pickup point up past a small range of mountains and to the hidden Ketch of the House of Thunder.

Trying to see the thing from the viewport always hurt Watcher's eyes. The Archon Priest, Durnisk, had developed an experimental cloaking device that bent the light around the ship in a very disturbing way. He was not sure how creatures like Humans who had only two eyes dealt with it. But his four eyes struggled to focus on the grounded ship below, and that hurt his head.

"Alright, we are dropping you lot off here!" The Baron called to his men. "You will stay with me." He added to Watcher as the Skiff lowered to the platform allowing all of the Vandals and Dreggs to drop off.

The Skiff took back off and began to fly in an eastern direction, away from the Ketch. Watcher looked between the viewport and the Baron.

"Where are we going? I was supposed to meet with the Archon Priest!"

"We are meeting with Priest Durnisk, don't worry about that." Grutek assured him. "But we are meeting him in a different location. His experiments are, energetic to say the least."

Watcher gave Grutek a disbelieving look before settling back against the wall waiting to see where they were off to. He was getting tired of being yanked around by the House of Thunder, even if they did provide him his means to an end.

.

It had taken several hours for the Skiff to reach what appeared to be another rundown Human city. Watcher glanced over it quickly before doing a double take and squinting his eyes. He was somewhat glad that he was in the Thunder Skiff, and that a Baron was on his side. He would have been killed within two breaths of entering this desolate looking landscape.

Elite Stealth Vandals were everywhere and were hard to spot. These Fallen knew what they were doing, and if it wasn't for Watcher's own training with the different Houses he had dealt with he would have looked right over them without a second thought. He could see they were eyeing the Skiff suspiciously, even if it was marked properly. It appeared this place was guarded even more than the Thunder Ketch was. That didn't include the contingent of King's troops that were detached to secure the site as well.

Grutek grabbed onto a rail and shoved Watcher softly. Giving a chuckle before dropping through the hole beneath them with a massive thud and kicking up a cloud of snow. The nearest guards raising their rifles slightly in apprehension, but not aiming them above the waist. They wouldn't shoot without a good reason too, they were well trained and this impressed Watcher.

Following the Baron silently Watcher entered one of the buildings behind the massive Baron, feeling the stares of the other Fallen on the pair. They weren't the stares of distaste or hate, they were calculating and cold. Watcher shivered as he felt them assessing him and estimating his abilities and most likely calculating what was the fastest way to kill the Vandal. Grutek did not appear disturbed at all, but he had fallen silent and did not speak at all during their trek past security points where more and more King's warriors were present.

"I do not care if you were the Kell himself! These need results before I can hand them over!" A loud voice argued with someone, it was Durnisk. "Unless," there was a pause, "you and your ilk wish to test the weapons for me?" The hopefulness in the Priest's voice was bone chilling at best.

"Like I will let them be the test cases for your imagination!" Another deep voice countered with a huff. "Your House agreed to these terms, Priest Durnisk, do not push my Kell's patience, nor mine!" The other was speaking in a rage bordered whisper.

"Peace to you, Priest Aksor! The weapons will be ready and delivered soon! I have a contract dealing with the experiments, now settle yourselves with these armor modifications I finished."

Watcher could hear the shuffling of equipment as Durnisk was apparently dealing with the King's Archon Priest himself. Great, another giant overly important Fallen to deal with. He stopped himself from running into Grutek's back as the Baron was surrendering his weapons to the guards at the door they needed to enter. Watcher followed suit, but kept the ruined rifle to turn over to Durnisk. What he saw next however defied his own logic, and understanding of who Durnisk was.

The room was littered with armor and weapons of all makes and from all sides of this system. Schematics lined one wall where what appeared to be a junk pile had been growing for however long Durnisk had been at work. He even spotted a Guardian's jump ship tipped against one wall. This all paled in comparison to what was on the Archon Priest himself, a string of Ghost's were attached to his chest piece instead of a bandolier of grenades. The thing that surprised him the most about it, was that they still glowed with their inner light, they lived on the brink of death, but were kept alive by the mad Priest.

"You sure my men won't catch fire this time?" One of the Priests, Aksor, asked as he gazed at the components in his massive hands.

Durnisk snorted in disapproval. "I told you, Priest Aksor, that those modifications were highly volatile, and those Guardians were using Flare based munitions. So you can't shove the whole blame on me. The new one's fix that issue, and with an additional insulation to Arc for your less than happy Devil neighbors."

"Very well, Priest Durnisk, we will have these implemented for now." Aksor nodded in approval before passing the components back to the other Archon Priest. "Now I must go report this to my Kell, and Durnisk?"

"Yes?" Durnisk whose attention was already diverted to one of his trinkets on one of the many tables. He paused to look at Aksor.

"What of the other matter? If you can find us a manner to take the Wolves, well, another Ghost for your collection?" He pointed at Durnisk's chest.

"No, I am still prying these ones for data on how we can get into the Reef silently. A Ghost is tempting, but an Exo. I want to know what makes those machines tick. Bring me one of those and I'll learn something new for you and your House." Durnisk's attention was already back at whatever he was working on, not caring that Aksor was still standing there or when the other Priest left.

"Priest Durnisk, I present to you the contractor with your experiment." Baron Grutek spoke up after a clearing of his throat. "I will leave him to you, Priest." Grutek bowed and swiftly left the room.

Watcher looked up at the massive Fallen as his attention shifted to the Vandal, and Watcher felt incredibly small at the moment. The assessing gaze was back, but more in a manner of what made him work than how to kill him. That was even more unnerving than before, and he was hoping this would go quickly.

"Good work out there, too bad that my rifle didn't hold up like I intended, may I have it?" Durnisk had approached and had gingerly taken the offered rifle from Watcher so he could look at it closely. "Hrrmm... Barrel fused together, heat sink vent overloaded and sealed itself." Durnisk had wandered off and was scribbling notes with his lower arms while analyzing the gun with his other two. "Heat dispertion is the only problem now. I anticipated as such, and had prepared another rifle for you. It is over there." Durnisk lazily pointed towards one of the stands by the door before drifting off into mumbling again. "Oh, and the guards will take you to a Servitor for some Ether before you go out again. They will inform you on some activity you may be interested in."

Watcher bowed his head before grabbing the rifle and leaving as fast as his legs could carry him and was glad he could get more Ether before returning to work.

.

"This will never work, you know."

"Oh don't be so negative about this; I've done this plenty of times."

"No. I'm positive you have never done this before. Your records state you fought on Mars, Fallen activity on that planet was minimal at best. Too much Cabal activity for anything like this to work."

"I never said that I did this to any Fallen, only that I've done this before. Now shut up, you're going to give me away."

"On the Cabal? Didn't you do this with a rocket launcher, and didn't you die?" His Ghost reminded him, now clearly agitated.

Raz was attempting to be stealthy and had dragged several explosive charges with him as he had crawled his way towards a small Fallen encampment. The camp consisted mostly of Dreggs and Vandals, but one bigger bastard seemed to order them around. His Ghost, Twinkles, called the thing a Baron. If he killed that he would have helped the Tower a lot in dealing with some airspace issues.

The snow on the ground helped to muffle his movements and he was sure that there was a layer of snow on his armor that helped conceal him a little more. It had been snowing for the last three days, and Raz hated the stuff. But no it was his tool for getting in close towards his target, the huge walking tank that seemed to be outfitted for anti-air.

Using his newfound stealth abilities was harder than he had anticipated and he was struggling with getting any closer to where he was now. He had passed the initial lines of sentries and what appeared to be prefab shelters of some kind. He never expected this many Fallen to be here in this area, and was just tempted to stand up and just tear them apart from where he had gotten. But he knew the walker was a problem for him alone, and it was the first time he would fight one, so he didn't know the weak spots.

Lost in thought he pulled himself out of his thoughts as he almost ran into the leg of the walker.

"Hey, you weren't planning on using all of that were you?" His Ghost quietly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, to kill this you should only need like, two to four. I'll do the math for you." He could hear the Ghost thinking out loud and doing something along the lines of "carry the two."

"Yeah, no dice, remember this always. No kind of kill like overkill." He took in a sharp breath as he adjusted so he could reach into his pack. "Well, here we go." He mumbled as he crawled under it and placed the charges on the inside of the "knees" as well as a few extra on the underbelly. "That should be enough."

"Enough?! You used all of it!" Twinkles practically yelled into his ear. "I don't think you thought this out too well did you?"

"I thought it out perfectly. I blow this thing back to space, and then I get to work." He calmly explained to his Ghost as he made it to the first of the structures.

"I think I may have done something to your personality when I put you back together." Twinkles sighed aloud.

"Stupid machine, don't sweat the small stuff. You wanted me, you got me. Now we do your end of the deal."

"No way. Not happening."

"Come on! I won't blow this bitch apart until you do it."

"Why must I do this? It wouldn't change a thing if I didn't do it."

"Just humor me, please? Plus, you got to do it now. I think the jig is up."

Raz watched as a group of Dreggs moved closer to the walker to inspect the placement of the charges. One of them pointed at it and squawked something to the Fallen next to it. Raz just primed the detonator and in the other hand gripped his rocket launcher.

"Do it!" Raz hissed.

"Ugghh… Fine!" The Ghost materialized and floated up high enough to where it could be seen. It waited until Raz had clambered his way up onto the building and picked the rocket launcher again. The Ghost played at clearing its throat before broadcasting on a loudspeaker in the Fallen language.

"Murder time!"

.

On the same snow covered tundra on a nearby ridge Raz's fire team stood over watch for him. The glint of the brief peeks of sunlight reflected off of the sniper scope as Jo watched the camp below. She would follow him and watch as he barely avoided a Dregg or a Vandal and slowly crawl on.

"Why are you so interested in that Human?" Archivia's voice came from behind Jo.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for one we already have a Titan on our fire team. Reason two I thought you weren't interested in finding a relationship." Archivia counted off the reasons behind her friend. "For reason two and a half, I wasn't sure you swung that way."

"Say what? Just because I don't pick up every dude I see doesn't mean any of that would be true!" Jo swung her head back to glare at her companion. "Also, who are you to talk? I bet your sex life is about as dead as Raz's, and he has been dead for what, over a hundred years or so?"

Jo returned her attention back to the field below to ignore the very flustered Archivia. The Warlock decided a dignified silence would be better than arguing with the Titan.

"Oh shit! He's going to do it!" An excited Jo reported to Archivia as she stared through the scope of her sniper rifle. She watched him load his rocket and toss it onto the building before awkwardly climbing on top himself.

"I told you he would." Archivia replied in an obviously forced bored tone as she started to read her book. She sat on a small camping stool and had a small heater next to her that now had a pot of tea placed on top. "Looks like you lose the bet."

"Hey, the bet will not be completed until I see some fucking results!" She snapped back.

That was when they heard it echo across the landscape in all of its glory, in Jo's opinion. Archivia only placed the palm of her hand on her face and breathed in slowly.

"Murder time!"

The following explosion was far over the top, to say the least. Through her scope Jo watched the nearest Dreggs just vaporize instantly. Several other Fallen were launched several hundred feet around the blast radius and some went airborne. She watched Raz smack away a flying Vandal with his rocket launcher before firing the first shot towards the panicking Baron.

The Baron didn't have time to dodge the rocket and the shield was depleted so the Baron took the brunt of the explosive and fell on its back in pain. It tried to get back to its feet but was knocked back down by Raz who had left his position on the building to deal with the stragglers.

.

Raz kicked the Baron in the side, breaking one of its four arms in the process and forcing it to fall onto its side. The Baron groaned in pain as it tried to fend off Raz's next kick and the mounting attempt the Human made. But it was powerless to the massive human.

"Nighty-night!" Raz shouted before charging his fist with Arc energy and striking the Baron in the head, killing it and tearing it apart in a burst of energy and leaving nothing left.

He barely had enough time to react as the wounded Captain leapt at him and latched onto his back. Giving off some guttural war cry the Captain wrapped it's hands around Raz's throat and the man fought back with a series of punches and kicks. He could feel the grip weaken, but the Fallen wouldn't give in and attempted to pull Raz off the ground.

"Don't worry Raz! I got this fucker!" He heard Jo's voice over their com link. Raz's eyes looked up and he could see the ridge, how in the Hell did she plan on taking down this Captain? They were both nearly the same size, unless- the sound of a sniper rifle and a brief lance of pain told him what her plan was. "Fuck! It didn't die! Hold on Raz!"

Before Raz could even groan out a reply he heard a series of more shots, and he could feel his armor right around his shoulders getting torn up. He was going to hurt her for this, but he needed to get out of this Captain's grip first. It didn't take long for the Captain to fall on it's back dead and Raz onto his face, coughing up blood. He was lucky his Ghost could pull his bits back together and fix him in moments. He could feel his body regenerating and the blood flow slowing after a few minutes of him swearing into the radio. He pushed himself up slowly to test if he wasn't about to die again and was satisfied that all of Fallen squad had been dealt with.

"Alright you little shit, let's go back and collect that bounty. I think someone owes me dinner and a bottle of whiskey." Raz spoke into the link created by his Ghost.

"Yeah, yeah, I know what I owe you, now get your ass back to the Tower first. Let's go guys." Jo's obviously disappointed tone carried over the frequency before the blip that represented her on his HUD vanished.

Raz didn't wait long to follow her up and he felt the sense of vertigo before he was being taken to his ship that was safely in orbit.

.

"Did you scan the wreckage in the area?"

"I am, that Titan did a number on the Fallen camp though. It's hard to distinguish what are ships and what is the newly departed walker." There was a pause as the sound of a Ghost scanning. "Here is something. I want you to look into it for me, Snow."

"Well you know I will. I have more data for you too; I'm transferring it to your Ghost now." Snow responded quietly. "You haven't told them yet, have you?"

"No, I don't know if I can trust the Human yet. Jo does, but only time will tell with him."

"Be careful Archivia. Some of my data indicates some Guardians are involved somehow, I can't point out how. But until we clear his name, be wary." Snow advised before he killed the connection.

Archivia looked at the landscape before calling herself back to her ship and taking off towards the Tower.

"Humans and Fallen working together? What is happening to this universe?" She commented to herself.

**Post A/N: Well I hope everyone liked this. IF you did, leave a comment or a review. You know, that would be nice. Also, Archivia belongs to RC927 and Watcher with the new Snow belong to Reilly.216. I truly appreciate the help these two have given me. So just remember, Keep on Keepin' on!**


	6. Chapter 6

**CH. 6- Reach into the Future**

**A/N: First off, Bungie and Activision own Destiny, not I. But as I said, I will be updating some of my chapters and correcting a few errors I have made and hopefully get the whole story corrected and on track for what is to come. So I hope you all enjoy the updated chapter. Odd place to start, I know, oh well.**

It had been a few weeks since the destruction of the anti-air Fallen walker, and to Jo the bounties they were picking up only seemed to be getting weirder. She was trying to turn some of them down, but Archivia was pushing pretty hard for once to go out and do these bounties. Jo was fine with them, and she saw that Raz enjoyed himself out there too.

That man, she enjoyed his presence most of the time. But recently he was bugging her; the man had been siding more with Archivia on the bounties and actually disappearing to find her more often than not. The noise produced around her snapped her back into reality and she ground her teeth as she looked down at the very man she was thinking of.

She watched as he moved from one place to another and positioned himself again, and she enjoyed the ability this man was proving that he possessed. Her eyes narrowed as his hands came up to grab a hand that was in between his shoulder and neck. She could tell he was straining himself, his heavy breathing clear due to the large rises and falls of his chest.

When he gripped the hand he elicited a yelp of pain before he grasped the elbow with his other hand and launched the Hunter over him and into the Warlock behind him. The Warlock cried in surprise before his voice was cut short when they crashed into the wall. Raz took this moment to turn his head to see the other two competitors in the Rumble Pit, both Hunters, were well occupied with each other. Deciding that dealing with a fellow Hunter would be more ideal than the lone Titan or Warlock.

This small melee produced yells from the spectators who were all seated above the octagonal arena and placing wagers on the various Guardians. The flat metal floor and high walls provided nowhere to hide or escape. Forcing all the occupants to fight to the last man or woman, and seeing who had the greatest survival instinct. To Raz, this was just all about luck mixed with an old fashioned brawl of disastrous proportions. He hated this place.

A sudden motion made Raz's head snapped back around as he watched the Hunter lazily roll back to her feet, and left the Warlock with her neck bent at the wrong angle. He took her sloppy recovery as an opportunity to race forward and to smash his shoulder into the Hunter and send her crashing into the wall again with enough force to form an impact crater. He waited a few more heart beats for the Hunter to stand back up, but when her Ghost popped out he relaxed slightly.

With that Hunter out of the fight as well as the Warlock, Raz reached up slowly and took in a tentative breath before pulling that Hunter's knife out of the gap in his armor. He looked at it with distaste as he thought over the Pit rules. No firearms. All close quarters and the Hunters used knives, as well as Warlocks with their voodoo space magic. Titans fought with their bodies, their hands and feet, more honor and respect in that kind of kill.

Nothing against blades or magic. So he could get inventive when opportunities arose.

Clutching the knife he took a sprinting start to close the gap between the one of the Hunters who was now dislodging his knife from the other unfortunate guy. Raz had to time this perfectly, if not, he would lose the match and get stabbed, again. The Hunter's visor came into sight as he realized the mass of armor was upon him. Without much time to mull over his decisions he crossed his arms in front of his head and stuck the blade out to hinder the Titan.

"Not gonna stop me!" Raz yelled out as he felt the knife bounce off his heavily armored chest piece. He jammed his own pilfered knife into the man's shoulder before punching him across the face. The Hunter crashed to the floor in a series of groans and an attempt to roll onto his stomach. This attempt was stopped as Raz dropped to one knee, grabbed the man's head and slammed it into the floor for an instant kill.

As Raz slowly made his way to his feet and ultimately, the exit he felt at his side where a brief stab of pain made him pause, his hand found another knife handle. The knife the last Hunter had used had gone down and slid into a different gap in his armor, and with his adrenaline he never felt it. He let out an annoyed sigh as he pulled that one out of him and dropped it on a bench, not caring who found it as he ambled slowly away.

.

Jo watched as Raz made his way to the locker room where he would get patched up and sent on his way. Archivia was absent from this match and that honestly hadn't really surprised her. What did was that Sushi was sitting next to her and was enjoying the fight.

"These Rumble Pit arena style fights are interesting, don't you agree Joanna?" Sushi began. "But why is Raz competing in it? He is barely quick enough to keep up with any of the other competitors and if those other Hunters had taken him seriously…" He trailed off knowing the Awoken woman would understand.

"Well he is competing because we have an agreement." Jo explained as she took a sip from her drink. "He tells Archivia what he remembers about Mars before it fell, and he pays for it by coming here to entertain me. That was his third victory this week."

There was a brief silence between the two as an intermission report materialized over the arena. Informing who would be fighting next and allowing the arranged warriors and civilians to make bets or take care of the essentials. A thought suddenly bubbled up in the Exo.

"It's Saturday morning today, and how many days did he compete this week?" Sushi was almost sure he knew the answer to that.

"Oh this is a daily thing." She paused to take another drink. "He isn't the best at CQB, but if anyone is dumb enough not to get out of his way. He bulldozes right over them, and that looks awesome."

"You enjoy other's pain too much, Joanna."

"Stop calling me that, I prefer Jo, remember?" Jo stood up suddenly and smiled at the Exo. "But for now, we are going to do something for him. I am a nice person you know, not always enjoying others in pain."

"You're not going to shoot him again are you?" The Awoken gave an annoyed shake of her head. "Well that is nice of you." Sushi paused as he mulled over a few things. "Hmmm, you going to buy him a new jumpship?" Sushi was only partially serious but Jo gave him a sarcastic laugh and flipped him the bird before bidding him farewell and taking off to find Raz.

.

When most people think of the Tower they think of pristine white walls and solid granite tiles with a perfect set of greenery to give the Guardians a nice place to relax. Most times it was like this, but not now, and it was still equally beautiful. The green grass and leaves had withered and died away, but were covered with a small layer of ice or snow. A thin blanket of snow covered most of the surfaces and was hardly disturbed by any wandering Guardian's footsteps.

That beauty however didn't stop an angry little Titan from stomping in it and kicking it around. Jo was sulking and doing her best at looking like a pouting child so the giant of a man, Raz, would give up on what they had set out to do with an excited Archivia. They were going to the Warlock's library.

"Why in the Hell are we going here? I thought we'd be going somewhere fun!" Jo whined behind the other two as she pulled her coat more tightly around her. "You told me it would a good time, Raz. A good time, you fuckin' liar!" She shouted and pointed an accusatory finger at the man.

"I never said it would be fun for everyone." Raz countered as he turned his head. The simple knit cap he wore kept his ears and shaved head plenty warm. "Besides, I've been trying to get Archivia to bring me here for the last three months and you owe me for all the arena fights I have to go through." He finished dryly.

"You make it sound like it's a torture session!" Jo indignantly replied to Raz's jab.

Archivia only nodded from the depths of her coat and parka. She was freezing and was amazed that Raz was wearing the cap and thin gloves with a simple jacket. Was the man invulnerable to the elements? She turned her head from the behemoth next to her and took a hold of a rail to aid her in climbing the steps to the Warlock's Tower.

"Why did I come?" Jo asked herself as she turned around. "You two kids have fun; I'm going back to the Titan Tower. When you're done here Raz, meet me in the gym, I'm gonna need a spotter that I can trust." She waved over her shoulder as she walked away.

"She doesn't trust the other Titans?" Raz curiously asked the Warlock as he offered her an arm to help stabilize her. She took his arm and was trying hard not to fall as she sorted her thoughts.

"No, she'll trust them elsewhere, like a battlefield." She sneezed and groaned in pain. "But not there, too many who just want to find a way into her bed. You Titans seem to be more of a base type of creature. Following your natural instincts and- GAH!"

Archivia was cut off as Raz pulled away from her and she had lost half of her support going up the slick steps. When she regained her bearings she glared at Raz from the depths of her hood and slowly shook her head before sniffling and pushing herself to climb the rest of the way up. While the man had little to no problem with the frozen staircase.

"How are you so good with the cold, and the snow?" Archivia asked suddenly. The question halted the man mid-step as he considered his answer.

"It got really cold on Mars at night, and even if you were wearing your enviro-suits you would still feel its bite through it and everything froze. So you get used to it when you work outside a lot." He informed her as he reached the top of the steps. "You learn how to take the cold and how to handle yourself on the ice, and not fall on your ass or your face."

Archivia felt her cheeks heating up and was thankful she had worn the scarf to cover her face. Her glowing eyes peeked over the top and to Raz that was slightly creepy. He took his eyes away from her to cross the small landing and the sensors on the door picked up the pair to let them in.

The wave of heat that slammed into Raz felt nice, but he could still feel the remains of the winter chill on his skin, it was pleasant. He took of the cap and turned to see Archivia's Ghost pulling all of her layers off, allowing her to actually move more than half a step at a time.

"Alright, let's begin your tour." She nodded and held out a hand suggesting he go in from the foyer first.

.

The winters on Earth were far more miserable than most of the Fallen would have given credit for. Lot's of planets had varied ecosystems, but this planet seemed to have a vendetta against those who weren't from the proper regions. All these thoughts came to Watcher as he gazed out a port hole on the Thunder Skiff he was riding in. He was brought out of his musings of terrible weather by the deep voice of another and much larger Fallen.

"My team and I will accompany you to the objective, which is this Devil Captain." Baron Grutek turned on a holo projector and it showed a much worn Elite Captain standing tall with his shock blades gripped loosely in each hand. "His name is one you might know. Verutiv Kras. The same Captain who was ordered to kill you, if I read your reports correctly."

Watcher nodded slowly, he recognized the Captain. So the Devil had gotten himself promoted to a higher rank, this would make his revenge all the sweeter. If he wasn't gutted on sight. He knew this Captain well, he was rather strong and surprisingly agile for one so large.

"But there is one issue now." Grutek nodded to the side and one of the Dreggs in the Skiff with them tapped a few buttons. A different Captain appeared next to Verutiv, and he was far larger than the former which was a feat in of itself. "This is Aravek Tai, an Elder Captain of the House of Venom. We received intel that he and his hunting party were hired by the House of Thieves to kill him."

"My own House wants him dead, huh?" The comment was almost silent as he rubbed his hands together in thought. "He works for them, or he did. I don't know now." Watcher added to the conversation. "Why is he being targeted?"

"The King's have captured him in a raid and are going to interrogate him, but not until after we get there. The Thief's most likely want whatever information he has been keeping to himself to vanish with him. So they marked him and hired that Venom hit squad to make him disappear." Grutek closed the distance between himself and Watcher. "Aravek is not one to be trifled with, even alone he is a worthy foe. We must be careful, and be ready in case he makes it to the Kings before we do, he may feel the need to kill some of the Kings that already have our target. If we are too late… We may be able to get him to wait before executing our target, but I'm not positive." Grutek was whispering this; he didn't want his troops to know that he was being cautious about a potential enemy.

Watcher nodded after a moment, he understood the danger this implied. He was no fool; even reaching the rank of a Vandal took a lot of time, a Captain? Too much effort for just a rank. But the chance to make Elder Captain could take the better part of a century rather than decades. This Aravek must have been good to rise up quickly without his notice.

"Good, we should be arriving now." Grutek nodded before reaching for his drop rail. "Pilot! Where are the Kings?" He yelled at the flight station when he didn't see anyone to greet him.

"I'm picking up only a few thermals, Baron Grutek! Something isn't right!" The pilot yelled back and looked out the view port to see where the other Fallen were.

"Aravek is here, Baron, you know it. It seems he didn't want to waste time in finding the little Devil." Watcher informed before dropping himself out of the Skiff.

Watcher's armored boots sank deep into the snow of the frozen terrain. It was refreshing to say the least, and it was one reason he actually enjoyed this blasted climate. That was when he spotted the first body and his mood soured; it was a King's Dregg. There were more nearby, and it formed some sort of grisly trail.

The trail of bodies was not long but it consisted mainly of the yellow of Kings, a few green House marks suggested that the Kings had put up some fight, but seeing the count and the way that the Kings bodies were strewn about. They were caught off guard and were unprepared for the ferocity of the Venom hit squad.

Even for a House so small, the reputation of the Venom was not lost on Watcher as he examined a body. Nearly bisected and the wound was flash-cauterized. The poor fool died quickly and quite painfully. He decided to forgo any other examinations in the desire to find the Venom squad.

After following the trail they did find a few live Vandals, a few angry looking and Ether starved Venom Dreggs. They had quickly snapped their weapons up and only hesitated when they spotted Watcher. One of them cautiously approached them before speaking. The others now noticing the approaching team raised their weapons but hesitated in pulling the trigger.

"Why are you here? We are doing your job, and why do you bring the Thunder with you?" The Venom Dregg fired off his questions in quick order, but he was not asking the Baron, he was outright ignoring the larger Fallen in blue. His questions were directed to Watcher, and now it clicked. He was wearing his old House's mark, and they weren't privy to who he was, so as Humans say, he ran with it.

"I travel with whom I am ordered; you will get what is yours, so stand back!" Watcher felt satisfied as the other Vandal nodded his head in acquiescence. "Now, where is the Devil? I have to gain some information from him before you kill him."

Was this what it was like to be in charge of Vandals and larger cadres? It felt good, in an odd way. He mentally slapped himself as he refocused on the job at hand. He needed intel, and now was not the time to daydream. He could get caught at any time and they would have to fight off this hit squad.

"Captain Tai has him, and we will take you to them now." The Vandal motioned for them to follow as he turned around.

It didn't take long to reach them; only after passing a small stand of trees did they encounter the Captains. Aravek was holding the Devil Captain by his throat and a shock spear in his other hands and was poised for the kill. The sudden entrance of Watcher and the Thunder Fallen distracted him long enough from not killing the whimpering Captain. The Venom Captain's head tilted in a curious manner, and Watcher noted that his grip tightened ever so much more on the Devil's throat.

"You will hold, Captain Tai!" Watcher called out to the Captain. Aravek looked between the two before giving a noncommittal grunt as a response and a huff before he dropped Verutiv to the ground without more complaint. The Devil groaned in pain as he slowly sat himself up and massaged his throat.

"Don't hope you can take the bounty from us, Thief." The Captain's voice filled the air suddenly and grated on Watcher's ears, it was rough and sounded like he had been stabbed in the voice box. "What is your name, so that I may remember you if you do." The Captain moved closer towards the new arrivals and made a grunting noise with a small gesture that had two lower Captains restrain Verutiv so he could not escape.

"I am called Mephistopales. But you can kill him, AFTER I ask him a few questions. I need information from him before you are to finish him." Watcher leaned his head back and turned slightly to Grutek and he whispered, "Use the bribe Ether you were planning on using for the hold off now. That should stop any bounty hunter."

Grutek nodded before pointing to two of the Dreggs who were carrying Ether packs. They brought them forward and dropped them at Aravek's feet who nodded in agreement before stepping aside. The two packs were quickly snatched up from the snow by two Venom Dreggs who rushed them off to their Skiff sitting not too far away.

Watcher got in front of the kneeling Captain and lowered himself slightly, grunting with the effort he looked over the Captain. He was looking worse for wear, the Kings were not gentle with him or maybe it was the Venom, he didn't care.

"Tell me, Captain, were you planning on running somewhere? You are far from Devil territory."

"No!" The response was quick and panicky. "The Kings raided a facility that I was guarding, and they took me instead of killing me." Verutiv's voice was weak and it sounded like he had been sobbing. Pitiful.

"Now I'm going to ask you something, and your answer can alter your fate. Why are really imprisoned, and why did Venom have to get involved?"

"I know of something, and the Kings seem to know I have some useful information." He paused to take his breath. "The location of your Ketch, the inside sources we have in the Reef and the Tower, and our plans. With the plans at least we can still keep a lid on it. Those I will never repeat to anyone outside of your House, if I survive, that will be a first." A dry chuckle escaped the Captain's throat followed by a fit of coughing. "The last time one of ours let information like this out, he was killed and his brother as well. I am glad that-" When the Captain finally looked up he stopped in horror. "You! I ran my blade through your-uggh!"

Watcher slammed a fist into the Captain's eye piece and watched as he fell onto the ground writhing in pain.

"Where are you holding that information!?" Watcher shouted at the Captain. Who shook his head in defiance. "Captain Tai!" Watcher's gaze never left the Devil, but he heard the larger Captain approaching in the snow. I'm sure you know what we do to those who are to become Dreggs?"

The dark chuckle that filled the air sent shivers down everyone's spines as they all knew what was coming, and the crackle of Aravek's shock spear locked that perception down tight. The screaming and begging were only rivaled by the tearing and ripping sounds that came from the Devil Captain. Watcher had to turn away as he witnessed Aravek cut, pull and tear off the lower arms of the other Captain.

With the Fallen fully humiliated he slowly reached for a pouch and pulled out a small sphere. He looked at Watcher pleadingly before it was snatched out of his hand by Watcher and he held it up to look at it in the light as if it was a mysterious treasure.

"Captain Tai." Watcher addressed him. "Kill this Dregg." Verutiv screamed again it was thankfully silenced quickly. With the quick thrust of Aravek's shock spear.

Grutek nodded to Aravek who bowed his head slowly in a grudging respect to the Baron and walked away leading his troop to the Skiff where they would head back to the Thunder's Ketch for their next plan of action.

.

After all the Fallen had left a Guardian rose up from the white ground and brushed away the snow that had been hiding him from the other beings. He made sure that they had all left before approaching the dead Captain.

"Archivia will want to know about this, and I think we may have a clue as where to go next." Snow stated quietly as he had his Ghost take scans of the area and quickly returned to his jump ship so he could follow the Vandal and his Thunder companions. He wanted that data.

.

"I'm telling you Raz, these guys are the real deal and we have been doing quite a bit of Darkness fighting." The enthusiastic voice of Corde was evident in the bar they were both drinking in. "I want you in man; I'm trying to talk the leader into it. He is a little on the, you know, Awoken only kick."

"Let me guess, he is Awoken?" Raz sarcastically asked as he took a drink from his beer. "Or is he one of those weird dudes that only wants an Awoken squad cause you guys look so…" He trailed off as Corde punched him in the shoulder. "Hey! You made me spill my beer!" Raz shouted as he watched the bottle roll off the counter.

Speaking of Awoken he spotted Jo dancing out of the corner of his eye and he quickly turned away with a small tinge of red on his face. He accepted a new bottle and took a long pull before glancing between it and Corde before speaking again.

"Besides," he started getting back to the point, "I'm busy enough as it is with my own team. The leader is riding me ragged and so is her compatriot. So your illustrious leader can keep that whole Awoken kick thing, I have my hands full with just this one." He tipped his bottle and he watched the orange liquid swish back and forth. What in the hell was this stuff? It tasted like… Mornings?

"That little thing is your leader?" Corde used the neck of his bottle to point towards the other Awoken, as if to confirm the earlier indication. He gave a wolf whistle as he looked her up and down. "I'd jump on that quick if I were you man, before she gets taken."

"By who? You?" Raz laughed as he tapped his fingers on the bar for another bottle. "I don't think so Corde. She seems to like me barely as it is, but you? I don't think she can tolerate an idiot like you."

The Awoken Titan made a sound like he was offended but laughed it off as he was notified by his Ghost that he had a message. Pulling it up his smile disappeared and he frowned as he read it.

"Well I hate to break up this reunion, but I have to go. We got a bounty to do, and it looks like it's a big one!" He slammed his bottle down and dropped some glimmer down as he nodded to Raz and left.

.

Corde let the door close behind him as he armored himself up. Pulling out his Ghost he called himself into orbit and set his course for Venus. His Ghost chimed in again and opened up a frequency.

"We lost one of our contacts, the Devil Captain. I think we need to move faster than we planned if we want this to work." Corde recognized the voice as his team leader. "The Thieves are getting impatient and want to get going to strike on the Wolves. So follow those coordinates I sent you and we are going to aggravate the House of Winter. Force them into action."

"But this is the Guardian Sparrow hub." Corde pointed out as he plugged in the exact data.

"Exaclty, the Wolves are there investigating an 'Awoken distress signal' that will go off in about an hour, and many Guardians will be there to see them there with broken equipment that doomed many other Guardians."

"Seems like it is too simple, but it should work. Tensions are already high." Corde smiled as his jumpship went to light speed.

**Post A/N: I hoped you like it, and remember, Archivia belongs to RC927, Watcher and Snow belong to Reilly.216 and the others are mine. I feel like this was more of a plot driving chapter than anything, so it is a bit shorter than the last one. I hope you enjoyed it and please review! So keep on keepin' on!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry this took so long to finish! I work for more than half the day everyday and recently it has been out of control. So I apologize profusely and will tell you this story will not die quietly, and it may go out rather sloppy if my pace keeps me from constant typing of this story. So, sorry again. As usual, I do not own Destiny, that belongs to Activision and Bungie. Now my favored readers, enjoy!**

CH. 7 Chasing shadows

The vastness of space has always intrigued mankind, and many other sapient species. This was the problem for Humanity. It had too many neighbors, and no one wanted to play nice with each other.

The constant thrum of the Human heavy frigate, Golden Trident, could be heard within its bulkheads by the crew and felt through the deck plating. This sound was rather soothing, but was interrupted by the constant chatter of crewmembers and maintenance personnel in the hangar of the ship.

"I'm telling you man, a guy I know in OPS told me this shit!" One of the several standing together whispered to his fellow workers. Their green painted suits and helmets designated them as maintenance and one man in purple, a fuel junkie.

"Man, don't go spreading this around the scuttlebutt. You know that is how people get thrown under the bus." Another in green whispered back. Looking over his shoulders quickly to make sure their supervisor was elsewhere.

"Why would I lie about this?" The first one shot back. "He told me they had gotten a few pings off of what looked like Seeder and Tomb ships! The Hive pushed past the Belt!"

"That would mean that they are either headed for Phobos or bypassing for Venus. We are off rotation with Earth currently." The man in purple pointed out.

"All these are rumors and speculations, we need fact. But just for the sake of curiosity. Smit! What do you think?" Another man called over to one of the few actually working on what looked like a bomber.

"I think you should all shut up, spreading rumors will just unsettle everyone, and then we lose work efficiency. So come on."

When Smit turned back to work he felt the ship come to a halt, and a severe heat wash over him. The sounds of yelling filled the air and he closed his eyes to focus on blocking out the sound. When he opened them he was holding a rifle in one of the passageways of the Trident. Several crew members were with him and the white flood lights had been switched for the dim red emergency lights. That was when the yelling turned into panicked screams.

Looking down he noticed they were at a barricade and the center could be swiveled in like a door. They were evacuating the Trident, the Hive had boarded them in a surprise attack. The initial defenses had been overrun in moments, and now the Hive were effectively hunting down any survivors. Smit had been gathered with a few others to hold certain points to allow more essential personnel to get to the escape pods and make sure the majority of the crew survived.

That was the plan. But it wasn't working all too well.

The piles of the Hive plus whatever remained of any Humans that the monsters had gotten to them first was strewn out before the barricade, and with the constant screams and howls. They knew that more people and Hive were coming and this was going to be a long night.

"We got another incoming!" A woman called out as she spotted a man come barreling around the corner and tried to maintain his balance as he ran over the bodies of the dead. "Open up the gate!" She called out and one of the men went to unlatch it.

"Oh fuck man! They're behind me!" The man called as another howl was heard and a pack of Thralls rushed around the corner followed by a trio of Acolytes.

"Get down! Get the fuck down man!" Someone yelled before gunfire erupted and forced the man to dive to the deck for safety.

The first wave of Thralls was cut down almost instantly and was quickly replaced by more of the hungry beasts. The cover fire from the Acolytes only gave the Thralls the chance to get within feet of the man before they were cut down by auto fire.

When the man had effectively made it through the barricade the little gate was swung shut and locked. It wouldn't do much to stop the Hive from advancing, but it would still give them some cover or if they needed to run they could and right now that seemed like the best plan.

After the last of the Acolytes hit the floor the little organization that this the crew had crumbled.

"Fuck this! Everyone to the lifeboats! Let's get going!" A woman yelled before turning on her heel and taking off down the passageway. Others quickly followed yelling for her to wait up.

"Shit! Come on Smit! They are going to leave our asses!" One of the men yelled as he took a quick look back down where the Hive had come.

Smit turned to run and seemed to be immediately at the escape pods squeezing his frame through the door and into one of the crash seats. He unfortunately seemed to get one near the door, and that led to the next problem in this crazy set of events.

A Thrall had decided to come inside with them.

"Fuck! Close the damned door!" Smit yelled as he was now grappling with the monster that was all teeth and claws. "Hurry up and-GAAHH!"

Smit's yell was cut off as the sudden rocking of the pod forced him closer to the Thrall and it managed to wrench one of its arms free to swipe at Smit. The claws dug into his shoulder and carried on down through his collar bone and him placing his arm at his chest saved him from letting it rip out his heart.

.

Raz woke up suddenly and jerked up in pain as he snapped his eyes open to not see the Thrall, but Jo's quarters. He slowed down his breathing as he closed his eyes and fell back onto what he assumed was the living room couch. He could feel his legs dangling off of one side and bitterly thought that she needed larger furniture.

Raz looked down and saw his scarred arm; his own resurrection did not get rid of the scars of his previous life. He lifted it and placed it on the top of his chest near his collar bone. This is where the rest of his scar would keep going up, and it reminded him that he wasn't invincible.

Hearing a small noise he turned to see Jo blearily walking into the room and rubbing one eye while the other was only cracked open. She covered up a yawn and stretched as she stopped several feet from her guest. He watched her carefully as her shirt went up to expose her stomach, and Raz turned his head away trying to hide his blush.

"Don't be so bashful now, babe. After last night I don't think you could be reserved anymore." She commented as she plopped down on the coffee table in front of the couch with a sly grin.

"Last night?"

"Oh yeah, it was great."

"Are you being serious? I don't remember doing anything at all."

"Yeah, it was when you got wasted and climbed the damn tree, sorry, I mean the 'Robot'."

Raz held his head in his hands and groaned. What the Hell happened last night? All he could remember was that after Corde had left that club and Jo came over. She had bought a large bottle of a florescent orange liquid. He was hesitant because of the glow, but it tasted awesome. Apparently it caused him to black out.

"It's true; we had to get a bunch of other Titans to get you out of that tree. A Hunter tried to but you picked him up like Donkey Kong and threw his ass out." She watched Raz for a reaction and continued. "You proceeded to go all out and claimed that he had not been worthy of your 'robot' friend. That's when the Titans stepped in and more or less smoked you out."

"How did it get that far? You didn't cut me off?" He pulled his head out of his hands to give her an accusatory glare.

"Hey! I had to leave, got a call from Archivia, said some guy has a special assignment for us. Has to do with all those Fallen patrols we have been wiping out. By the time I got back you had left the bar and had migrated to the tree out by the gunsmith pavilion." Jo got up and started to walk away. "So get your shit together, we leave in two hours for the wilds of Old Russia."

Raz watched her go and shook his head as she turned past the doorframe. He couldn't believe he let himself lose control last night. He grimaced as he stood from the couch and hissed at the contact the cold floor made with his feet.

"Damnit, where are my shoes?"

.

The Thunder Skiff was lazily floating along the wilderness that was Old Ukraine. The flight was rather uneventful after the crew had dealt with the Captain from the House of Venom. Sorric, that was a name to remember for the future. Watcher made sure to burn that name into his brain in case he ever ran into that ferocious creature in his future.

Grutek pushed his way towards Watcher and looked down at the Vandal skeptically before asking the obvious question.

"Was it worth that price? Was whatever you gained worth the dishonor of another?"

"For a Thief, yes." No hesitation, no remorse and no emotion. He would not let anything detract from this victory he had achieved.

"Well, that is your own path. But we must split ways here. We will drop you off with the Pike, but I have been summoned by the Kell to represent him." Grutek's chest puffed with pride as he spoke. "The Wolves have been harassing the borders off all the Houses and many of the Kells have called for a ceasefire to meet and discuss what must be done about that House. They call under the premise that we should discuss assisting one another and split the Reef between all the Houses who go and fight. I personally think that it is a trap, and that any who go will die." The dark chuckle that followed was full of mirth.

"Well, Baron Grutek, I wish you honor and glory in your fights ahead." Watcher cited and bowed his head in respect while placing a fist on his chest.

"May your aim stay sharp and your blade never still in the hunt." Grutek responded as he bowed his head back towards Watcher. "Now we must not keep the other Barons waiting, we must show up to aid the Kings since they can't even dress themselves without our aid."

His voice had picked up in the end and the cabin erupted into laughter as the Baron took a shot at their 'employers'. He proceeded to pull at a hatch and motioned for Watcher to jump down so that the Pike could be dropped after him and the Skiff could be on its way.

Watcher peeked through the open hatch and saw that the snowy ground had come to a stop, or better said, the Skiff had and he took that chance to leap through the circular hole and to the ground below. He could hear that the crew didn't wait long and that the Pike was detached shortly after he dropped.

The snow did little to cushion his fall and seemed to be more crunchy than anything, a thin layer of ice over the top made this so. He heard the solid thump of the Pike collide with the snow behind him, the repulsor pads did little to slow down the secondhand machine.

Watcher grunted in annoyance as the Skiff lazily floated away and left him in the cold. He would survive, the Fallen were very adaptable, but he wouldn't be happy with this. Especially after he began to inspect the Pike, it was definitely a used machine. Several pieces of the armor plating were missing and exposing the interior wires as well as the power nodes. This thing would catch fire in a heartbeat if looked at wrong, let alone get shot at.

His speculations were cut short as he heard the higher pitched sound of a jet engine, a Guardian ship. He was alone in foreign territory, a banged up Pike, and a Guardian was now about to pass by. Hopefully the creature of 'Light' would pass him by. But his luck sometimes would just give him a backhand to the face some days.

The jumpship that he had heard was flying low and slow, and it apparently had spotted the Skiff when it stopped and dropped him off. It was coming to investigate and Watcher needed to get hidden fast, and so he took off at a sprint for a small gathering of rocks. It was an obvious place, but it would give him a chance to set up a shot from most angles.

.

Snow had seen the Skiff stop and drop a single Vandal and a Pike. It normally wouldn't have caught his interest, but through the zoomed in screen of his ship he saw it was the Thief that had interrogated the Devil. He needed to talk with that Thief and it seemed that he had been granted that chance.

He felt himself become pulled apart and put back together on the ground as his Ghost Trans-matted him to the frozen earth below. The icy snow crunched under his boots and he was glad he wore his thicker robe today. His HUD was telling him that it was dipping into the negatives, and it was only the morning still.

He shook himself off as he kept his hands away from his body and scanned the surrounding area, letting his eyes hesitate on the lone Pike for a moment. He knew that any creature with any intelligence wouldn't use that for cover, and would get some distance between itself and the vehicle. That only left the patch of rocks about forty feet to his right, and he could feel the crosshairs on him now.

He swallowed a lump in his throat as he slowly made his way to the rocks, and was certain that he was definitely being watched. He didn't want to make any sudden moves and raised a hand to signify he was being peaceful.

"I am unarmed!" He called out as non threateningly as possible. "I only wish to discuss something, maybe make a deal with you!"

The silence that followed was heavy, and he swallowed hard again. Maybe this wasn't going to work?

"No kill!" A voice in rough English called out. "I no kill! You no kill! We have deal?"

"You have my word! As a Warlock of the Tower!"

The Fallen, a Vandal, slowly left the cover with it's rifle half raised. It was ready to fight if Snow posed any threat to it. But he didn't plan on aggravating the being much here, he needed to get something. The Vandal stopped about ten feet or so from him and looked around warily.

"You make deal?" The Vandal offered, the English was evidently self taught and was rough around the edges. But he seemed to understand the language well enough.

"Yes, I saw you, with the Venom and the Devil." He watched as the Vandal tilted his head to the side, good, that meant that he was thinking. "I want to know things that the Devil knew. I know you took something from him before he died. I want that."

The Vandal appeared to be thinking it over hard and had not come to a violent conclusion, his gun was now lowered and almost seemed to be forgotten.

"You look for Thief?"

"I don't know, but that Captain was connected to the Wolves somehow, and I need to figure that out soon."

"We make deal, this has location. You help me kill. Deal?"

Location? Well that might help him figure something about the Wolves sudden outburst towards Fallen held territories on Earth.

"Deal."

.

"You in position?"

"Yes, mom, I'm waiting on you two."

"Smartass, how about you Raz? You ready?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. As ready as I'll ever be. But answer me one thing, okay?"

"What's that?" Archivia and Jo answered at the same time.

"Why the Hell are you two using the radios to talk in the same room? Also, why the Hell am I the bait/counterweight?"

"Well why wouldn't we use a radio? We're trying to be fucking sneaky!"

"Plus." Archivia added on to Jo's argument. "You are the heaviest and the only one that can get this thing up."

Raz gave them both a deadpan stare behind his helmet before looking down into the ruined street from their vantage point. They had just gotten there after what looked like a turf war between Fallen Houses and had gotten lucky with what the two groups had left behind. One of which was apparently a high powered Fallen processing unit for their data. The area below must have been a camp for it to be there, and it was marked with a Wolves logo.

"Why don't we just have one of our Ghosts mine it for data? You know, and not have to take it to wherever you are going to tell me to carry it to." Raz groaned as he secured a composite rope to his waist. He looked out the window as Archivia dropped down and glided gently to the rubble below. "Too damn high." He muttered as he watched her wrap the other end of his rope to the giant piece of tech.

"Have you noticed something odd?" Jo asked suddenly. "It's really quiet here. The Fallen just seem, gone." She shrugged her shoulders lamely as Raz gave her a look.

"Jo's right, the two groups pulled out, and haven't come back to reclaim any salvage. This is strange." Archivia's voice came in over the radio.

"Don't jinx us you two, it would be nice for an easy mission for once." Raz inserted his opinion as he tested the rope and sighed before jumping out the window.

He watched as the rope went taut and felt it slow his fall as the piece of tech they were scavenging started to lift rapidly and it passed him quickly. His boots crunched the frozen pavement and he looked around cautiously for any sign of the Fallen. Nothing, it really seemed to be abandoned.

"Where the fuck is everyone?" He muttered. "Hey Archivia, where are we taking this?"

"We are going to just hold it in the building until we get coordinates from my contact. Until then, we will try to take as much data as we can, it's safer up there than trying to mine it from down here." She looked between where Raz and Jo were and turned on the frequency jammer that Snow had provided her. According to her friend's last message they were close and couldn't get the Tower involved. If they operated without the Tower's obvious aid, if they messed up the Tower would get off easy, that was the plan at least.

.

Guardians of all kinds had gathered at the entrance to the room where the Vanguard held council. There were several guards posted outside the sealed doors as the warriors of the Light yelled and threatened to get in. It was a terrible day in the Tower's history.

"I don't think I need to explain how bad the situation is, Speaker." Commander Zavala's voice was powerful enough to cut through the muffled shouts of the Guardians outside.

"An outright rebellion of Guardians, the closing of the Awoken Embassy and Venus' Ishtar Sparrow system shut down causing the deaths of Guardians all over the Ishtar Sink." Cayde-6 counted off. "That's not bad, Commander, that is horrific. We don't need a pissed of Awoken fleet to invade us while our Guardians are pushing us to go in and kill them first!"

"A lot of Awoken died at that hub, we are still trying to find out who fired first. The Guardians there, or that Awoken team that had responded to some call." Ikora commented dryly. "Too many died for something no one understands."

The Speaker of the Traveler held his chin in his hand as he thought quietly. When the leaders of the Vanguard had finished their pieces he sighed sadly.

"Too many are thinking of why it started, and not how we can finish it." He began softly. "Cayde you are right, we cannot afford a war with the Reef, even if our Guardians try to force our hand. They were all told to walk their own paths in the Light, but this will lead them to enter the Darkness if we are not careful in how we handle this. I will contact the Queen again and ask for a negotiation to happen at a sooner date." The Speaker folded his hands behind his back as he looked at the Vanguard leaders who were leaning on the table. "Now I feel that there is dissent among some of our own, find the few and we can stop it from destroying us before the Darkness can."

The leaders all nodded and watched as the Speaker left out a side passage.

"You catch all that Travis?" Cayde looked over his shoulder at a Hunter he had pulled aside before they sealed the doors. "We need you to find and track down these people who could be our own."

The Hunter nodded as he drew his pistol and checked the sight on it.

"I want access to communication logs, I want to know who was there, and if anyone is blocking themselves to the Tower. Because if they are, they wouldn't have gotten your recall message for all Guardians."

Cayde nodded as he went through some data and when he found the appropriate files, transferred them to Travis' Ghost.

"Good hunting, and may you walk in the Light."

"Thank you, and I will be swift." The man commented before trans-matting to his ship to study the list and narrow it down.

Today was his lucky day, only about forty Guardians or so had been jamming the Tower, three on Venus. With a little more digging, three others were associated with the first three. He had his first targets. Fireteam Orion which consisted of Jo, Raz, and Archivia. They had last been logged into the Old Russia Sparrow hub, that's where he would start.

**Post A/N: So I feel like I kind of rushed the end. But yeah, it happens when I don't have a whole lot of time anymore. So only expect sporadic updates, sorry.**** I hope it gives you all a hint at what I am planning.**

**Archivia belongs to RC927**

**Snow and Watcher are Reilly.216**

**and the new Travis belongs to LazyPersons, which I have to thank you. You gave me the right Guardian at the right time!**

**Keep on keepin' on Guardians!**

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	8. Chapter 8

CH. 8- Time for some news

**A/N: It's been a while since the last update! I know! But I hope this was worth the wait, please be gentle with the reviews. As always, I do not own Destiny, it is the property of Activision and Bungie.**

Snow was drifting lazily through the broken space that was the window of the building Archivia had deemed would be their base of operations. The data cache sat up there with them near the innermost wall.

The way it sat there humming quietly, just made Raz want to kick it through the next wall.

"Calm down Raz, if you don't check your anger you will shock Jo." Archivia informed the Titan idly as she studied the information her Ghost was pulling from the cache.

"Huh?" The sudden break in his concentration made him realize that small arcs of electricity were jumping from his hands and around his arms all the way up to his head. "How am I even doing this?" He asked as he shifted in his armor, trying to find a more comfortable position on the ruined floor. This was harder to achieve as Jo's sleeping form was leaning on one side, and her armor didn't make her light in the slightest.

"A study I have seen other Warlocks approach is the different powers we Guardians possess and what fuels them." She paused as she caught herself. "Well, aside from the Light of the Traveler that gave us these gifts." She strode away from the Fallen tech and sat in front of the pair.

"They say that certain aspects are affected by one's mentality or their emotional disposition. For example you, a Striker class Titan. You're power grows as you become more frustrated or angry. Driving your explosive potential through anything unfortunately caught in your path." Raz nodded at her logic and she pointed at Jo. "She on the other hand is a Defender Titan. She is more patient-Don't give me that look! I can feel it through your helmet." Archivia pointed at Raz's armored head and he raised his free arm in defense. "As I was saying, as hard is it to believe that she is patient, she has a very balanced head when it comes to combat. She also possesses a very strong desire to protect those who are close to her."

"Well that makes sense, I guess." He commented as he let his helmet dematerialize. He could now feel the cold air on his skin and it felt good. "But just because she is overprotective doesn't mean she has to be too close." He joked as he adjusted the small Awoken woman again, she mumbled in protest as she continued to sleep.

"Well, can't help the fact that she likes you. So you are stuck with her, just accept it." She nodded as Raz gave her a confused raise of the eyebrow. "She only works with those she likes and those people include me, Sage-22, whom you punched on your revival and the last one is Entity. He was the other Exo that was with Jo when you came back to the land of the living."

"Sometimes," Raz began as he thought hard. "I wish I had stayed dead. Too many damn nightmares of my past life and what I know are something that doesn't matter anymore." He shook his head as he quelled the memories that tried to flood his vision. Archivia's brows knitted together in response to his musings.

"You dream of your daughters again?" She let some concern enter her voice as she took off her helmet, now letting Raz see her face.

"No, I didn't." Archivia didn't look to believe his answer and she sighed before breaking eye contact.

"You know, Jo's offer still stands, we can-"

"Don't, I- just don't, please?" The pain was evident in his voice as he looked at her. A small jump in Arc energy nearly hit Archivia as his arm slowly moved to his waist.

"I'm sorry Raz, I'll leave you be." Archivia apologized and left without another word. Trying to ignore the bursts of electrical energy that were now dancing across the man's armor and dissipating into the knife he held tightly in his free hand. She smiled however as she spotted Jo's smaller hand curl around the larger man's and he closed his gently around hers. They still had time, she'd let them have their happiness for now.

.

"So you are the rumored Watcher, aren't you?" The voice of Snow was subdued and slightly anxious as he looked at the Vandal that had his arms folded in front of his body. He looked almost bored to tears.

"Do many speak of me? But I have heard that name from a few, and have taken it upon myself." His head cocked to one side as he watched what the Warlock was doing closely. Which at this point baffled him; it was a series of rapid movements on a holographic interface and what looked like an analog system. Nothing should have been working together as well as it was for this Warlock.

"There are Guardians who speak of you. The Vandal who watches and waits in the shadows." Snow slowed down his typing to look closer at a display at his right side. Satisfied that it was what he was aiming for he sped back up on the analysis of the sphere. "There are rumors that you are on our side; I'm inclined to say you are generously neutral in this struggle."

The Vandal nodded his head as he pushed himself off of a bulkhead and moved silently towards the sphere to look at it again. His four eyes began to squint as he looked over the smooth surface and the band that crossed the middle. The data was being transmitted through the small IR node on the band; this would be quick, only if they could make sense of what they were pulling from the sphere. They were missing the key, and the Warlock had stated that he had a friend looking for it right now. Watcher was being skeptical.

"Well we have some data. But it isn't complete, and some of it is coded." Snow said suddenly. "My associates will have the rest of it ready for us soon enough." Snow was looking at the data in front of him intently. "There are a few glyphs I don't recognize, can you take a look at this?"

Watcher nodded as he walked around the jumble of equipment to join Snow at the work station. He lowered his body slightly to get a better view and his breath caught. This was it, well, almost. It was obviously missing a few key parts.

"The Reef. They are hiding somewhere in the Reef."

.

It had been almost a week since the incident on Venus had passed; the Guardians of the Tower grew more and more frustrated as they were confined to the Tower and the Vanguard had yet to emerge from their council. It was starting to unnerve several Guardians, and the fact that there was a veritable wall of Titans between the crowd and the door made tensions almost physical. The Vanguard was up to something important, but was keeping it from those who followed them.

"What is the Vanguard hiding from us? We deserve to know what we are going to do!" A voice called out over the other cries and obscenities from the others around him. "We should just bust down this door and demand answers!" Multiple Guardians nodded and shouted in agreement with this action.

"Wait!" A Hunter stepped forward from the Titan wall and nodded to one before taking a few more steps into the open. "The Vanguard is trying to solve the problem with the aid of the Speaker in cooperating with the Reef for minimal damage-"

"Why the fuck are we cooperating with them? We should give them payback for what they did on Venus!" A large Warlock interrupted the Hunter and riled up the crowd a little more.

"Yeah! Those fucking cowards abandoned us when the Darkness came! Why should we play nice with them?" Another voice called out. Several other voices joined in about getting back at the Awoken.

The Hunter raised his hands slightly to try and calm down the ever escalating agitation within the crowd. He was growing worried and took a hesitant step back. He even let a few traitorous thoughts slip through his mind. What was taking the Vanguard so long to decide on an action? Didn't they know how bad this was getting? The Reef embassy wasn't getting this much trouble, why was he assigned to this post?

"Get back!"

"Back the fuck up!"

"We will be forced to subdue you!"

He was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't notice the crowd moving closer along with the apparent leader of the mob, the Warlock. Several Titans moved past him and towards the Warlock and the gathering Guardians behind him, who along with the crowd was moving closer to them. He was shocked to see that the Titans had already raised their rifles in an aggressive position but not at the people directly. Things were getting out of hand far too quickly.

The whole situation deteriorated suddenly as the Warlock reached the Titan line and violently exploded.

"I said stay ba-!" The Titan nearest to the Warlock had been cut off in mid shout as he was caught in the heart of the fireball and was vaporized in an instant while the few that were near him were blown to pieces by the immediate shockwave.

There was a long moment of silence that seemed to drag on for hours as everyone was trying to process what had just happened.

The silence didn't last all that long, only for a few heartbeats.

Chaos ensued as the shell shocked Titans raised their rifles and opened fire. The first ranks of the Guardian mob didn't stand a chance at the Vanguard's elite cadre of Titan guards. They were torn apart and their Ghosts popped into existence and tried to stay low to avoid any stray gunfire. But the one sided battle didn't last long as the mob turned into a full blown riot and several Golden Gun shots went off and turned several Titans into dust.

"Fuck! Take cover!"

"Get us some damn support! Call in the Platforms!"

"Get the Vanguard out of there!"

The many Guardians who had come were still fully armed and ready to leave the Tower, and the fight quickly was turning on the Titans. Even with their position and gear. There was only so much they could do to suppress the angered Warriors of the Light.

"Why the fuck you still standing there?!" A Titan yelled at the Hunter who was assigned as their watch captain. "We need help!" A round bounced off the Titan's heavy shoulder plate and forced him to hunch his shoulders slightly so not to take any unnecessary wounds.

The scrambled and panicking yells of the Titans made the whole situation more surreal as the Hunter silently stood there, watching it all unfold before. He tried to convince himself that this wasn't happening, even shutting out the Titan in front of him. He kept telling himself in the brief time this firefight had started that he would wake back up to stand guard the next day. But a flash of light and a brief flare of pain brought his hopes to an end as another bomb went off when a Hunter dropped at his feet.

.

"What is going on out there?" Ikora Rey called to one of the Warlocks stationed in the room. The response of the woman was a shrug before she went to check on the door.

The thick doors did well in muffling the sound of the gunfire and explosions, reducing them to mere thumps and cracks. All of that changed as the Warlock opened one of the sides of the door. The full on noise of battle reached the Vanguard's ears and even the stoic Commander Zavala looked worried.

"Your Hunter has failed us, Cayde. It has turned far worse than predicted." The glare Cayde received from the Titan commander was scalding to say the least. "We need to regain order and fix this problem first!"

"You don't think I am aware of this?! I had all of the spare Hunters for our security over by the Reef embassy! Those guys aren't being touched and I'm going to have to send them here to handle what your Titans obviously can't!" Cayde shouted back as the Warlock returned with a group of wounded Titans. Several of the Guardians posted inside the room slipped out to provide support.

"Get a hold of your Hunter, Cayde. I will assist in pacifying the Guardians." Ikora stated as she pulled out her shotgun, the Invective.

.

"The Hall of Heroes is under fire, unless you can give us any solid leads you need to report back to provide support." Cayde-6's voice cut in on Travis' earpiece as he tried to move as silently as possible in the rubble of a building.

"Things escalated quickly, haven't they, sir?" Travis chuckled darkly as he pulled himself over what looked like collapsed stanchion. "But I eliminated several teams due to time constraints, and am closing in on one of the full teams that are jammed to us. I'm closing in on them now."

"You think this is funny?" Cayde's voice sounded upset on many levels. "But- Just hurry up! Get this under wraps and we can figure out what to do next." The Vanguard's voice left his ear and the buzz of the open link died as well. Cayde was busy, and it was getting worse.

Travis finally ascended to the next floor through one of the many holes and could now hear voices. He edged around a corner and drew his weapon of choice. Thorn. He wasn't sure if the Vanguard would allow him to use such a weapon on other Guardians, but they said at any cost. So he took that as permission to use the Darkness infused weapon. He checked the loader on his handgun to make sure it was loaded, didn't want to get shot realizing he hadn't reloaded it since his last firefight.

Satisfied with the contents of his gun, he kept getting closer to the voices he was following. It was two of them, a man and a Ghost. Recalling the fire team roster, it would be the Titan, Raz. The notes said he was not the greatest at CQB, but could pack one hell of a punch as well as being rather reckless. That could be a problem if he wasn't taken out quickly.

"I'm telling you, Guardian, the jamming signal is nearby. I just haven't found it yet."

"How have you not found it yet? We've been here for almost a week!" That one was obviously Raz, he was close, and loud.

"It's not as easy as you think it is. The signal is bouncing off many different relays in the area."

"I know that! Just, follow the signal in one flow and you will eventually get to the source. It gets weaker after every bounce." This man actually sounded more… intelligent than most Titans he had ever met. "But whatever just make sure they don't come over here ok? I gotta pee."

"Don't worry, my scanners still work." The Ghost, Twinkles, replied dryly.

Travis took this opportunity to silently enter the room and he was what looked like a bombed out office. The room was large and had a massive chunk missing, and his target was peeing off the side. While singing 'I'm a little teapot', this made Travis shudder as he opted to draw his knife. Silence was a better weapon than gunshots.

"-here me shout. Tip me over and- Auuggghh! God! OW! FUCK!" Raz yelled out in pain as he felt a blade pierce right in the gap between his armor plates of his body armor near his armpit. "Shit! I just pissed myself!" Raz yelled as he tried to stop peeing, put himself away, and kick the offending Hunter off of him.

Travis backed away from the flailing Titan and cursed his luck; he had overestimated where to stick the blade to incapacitate the other Guardian. Raz was extremely tall, and like most Titans he was covered in armor and muscle. The stab apparently hurt like a bitch, but would not stop the walking tank completely.

"Jesus that hurt." Raz turned around to face his attacker, and got a good look at the Hunter. "What the Hell man? We aren't in the Crucible, no suppressors here to keep us from dying!" He yelled as the Hunter adopted a ready stance. "Ah Hell, here we go." Raz cracked his neck as he dropped into a fighting stance and without another thought charged at the Hunter.

Travis ducked under the first strike and tried to lodge his blade into an opening in the Titan's armor. The blade clinked against the heavy plating and he was forced to dance away as Raz swept his arm back trying to catch him with a massive backhand.

Rethinking his tactics Travis reached down and grabbed a throwing knife before hurling it as fast and hard as he could at the behemoth. The Titan who had already been bearing down at him in a sprint let some of his Arc power flow out of him and a translucent shield slowed down the blade before it impacted his shoulder and staggering the Titan slightly.

Raz let out a battle cry as he swung his right fist towards the Hunter who nimbly jumped out of the way and slashed his blade at the extended arm. The blade didn't go deep, but it cut Raz at the elbow causing a hiss of pain as he retracted his arm and kicked suddenly. Travis was unprepared for the boot, but he felt that he took it relatively well. He didn't feel any bones break and he was only sent a few feet away from his target.

"It's a shallow strike, shall I call for assistance?" Twinkles asked within the safety of Raz's helmet. His only response was a quick shake of his head. "I see, well if you haven't noticed he is much faster than you. So plan accordingly."

"Stupid machine, I should let Jo have at you when I'm done here." Raz grumbled as he squared back up with Travis. "Alright Hunter, we going to keep fighting? Or are you going to tell me what you are doing?" His only response was another knife being thrown at him that he barely dodged in time.

Raz had dodged the knife with a spin and in that motion reached for his side arm. The weighty hand cannon he drew quickly and Raz set the hammer and squeezed the trigger in one fluid motion and followed it up with several other shots.

Travis let his shields take the first bullet and he dove for cover behind a ruined desk as he reached for Thorn. The gunshots were incredibly loud, he would have to deal with the Titan very quickly, and his fire team definitely would have heard that. Taking a moment he heard the sound of the loader being swapped out and he stood out of cover to shoot the exposed Titan. What he didn't expect was that Raz had been charging and Travis panicked.

The first two shots went wild and the third struck the charging Guardian in the chest. The effects of the hand cannon were immediate, but not enough to stop him. Before Travis could fire he could hear what he could only call a sonic boom and tried to dive to the side but was clipped. The Arc infused charge sent him reeling and into the wall coughing and sputtering. He was also certain his shoulder had been dislocated, he was lucky he was only clipped.

Picking himself back up Travis didn't see Raz, did he run? That was when he saw the new hole in the wall, and Raz's hand holding on to the edge. He wasn't sure what to make of this, but he had to be careful.

"Son of a bitch… Shit." Raz grumbled as he tried to reach back up with his other arm, and spotted the Hunter standing above him. Raz looked between the Hunter and what looked like a stairwell beneath him, and cursed. "Don't you fucking dare!"

Travis stomped on Raz's hands forcing the Titan to drop fifteen feet before he hit the first step and started to crash and roll his way down.

"Fuck! Ow! Shit! Son of a- shit!"

Travis watched as the Titan disappeared from view and straightened his cloak. He'll find the Titan later, but first he needed to secure the other two. He paused before looking at the ground by the edge where the Titan had fallen. The hand cannon of the man lay there and it was definitely built for a Titan. He picked it up before sliding it behind his belt across his back. He could use it later before he had to turn it in for evidence.

.

"- are you? Do you copy Raz?" The voice paused as there was the sporadic sound of gunfire and cursing in the background. "Raz! We need to get out of here! If you can hear me get to your ship and go to the coordinates I'm sending you!"

Raz groaned as he sat up slowly, and looked up the dark shaft he had fallen down. He grunted in even more pain as he pulled himself up to one knee to assess the damage he had taken. His armor was a bit cracked and it looked like the yellow and green paint of his armor was getting scraped off pretty well, he'd need a new coat of both. But overall his health was fine; his body had healed while he was unconscious.

"If you copy me Raz, go to those coordinates! Jo and I are extracting the last bit of data we need and then we will join you!" Right, that was Archivia, and Jo was in the background, laughing. Her laughter was also accompanied by the sound of heavy machine gun fire, seems like the little Awoken had taken the chance to try out her new weapon. Good for her.

"This is Raz, I copy the order. Ow. I'm going." Raz held out Twinkles before he felt himself be pulled apart and into his ship. He didn't land gracefully in the cargo hold, but like his first entry in his new life, he crashed into the deck plating. "Ow, again." He held out his hand while lying on the floor. "Twinkles, autopilot this thing, I'm tired."

Raz's head thumped against the plate and he groaned as he began to doze off again.

.

Travis dived from cover to cover as he tried to avoid the enormous amount of gunfire heading in his general direction. This awoken, Jo, had burned through at least three boxes of ammo while switching before cursing and laughing like a giddy child. He risked poking his head out again to see if she was reloading or not just to duck back in as the gunfire resumed.

"Jesus, she must have synthesized more ammo. There has to be some way." He looked behind him and crawled along his half wall to keep himself out of sight as he relocated. Pulling out his handgun as he reached the end he pulled himself around the corner and fired semi blindly at his target.

"Damnit! Fuck that shit burns!"

He grinned as he was rewarded with a few solid hits and the ceasefire of the tiny woman. Quickly reloading he stood up and fired a few more rounds haphazardly.

"C'mon Jo! We got the data and Raz is gone! We gotta go now!" The Warlock grabbed the smaller Titan by the shoulder pad before she transmatted herself out and into her jumpship above.

"What? No! Damnit!" Travis cursed as he fired again but watched as the bullet sailed through where Jo had been. "All that work." He muttered as he lowered Thorn.

It wasn't a complete loss, however, he could still look at this Fallen tech. Whatever they were after was on here and he could use it. He did, however give it a swift kick for good measure to vent his frustration and that was when he noticed it. One single word had been scrawled on the side of the Fallen equipment that held a large amount of significance, and led him into a bit of confusion. Why would they write this? Weren't they going rogue? It didn't matter; he would report it and hopefully gather a team to capture this rogue team.

He was going for the Reef.

**P/N: I hope you enjoyed and thanks to RC, Reilly, and Lazypersons for loaning me your OC's! This story wouldn't have gotten this far without it. Also, thanks again to Reilly and RC for their encouragement and support for me to get this done. I hope I can wrap this up on a regular basis, cause we are getting to the finish here! Remember people! Keep on keepin' on!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: It's been a long time coming, and I want to apologize. I've been working overseas for several months, and will be home in a few weeks. So chapters will flow out much faster! I promise, well, mostly promise! Other than that, I felt several parts of this chapter were not as great as they could have been. So I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

CH. 9- Ultimate Mayhem

Rhythmic tapping filled the stale air and would have been quite enjoyable, if it wasn't coming from the knife tapping the Engram that Sage had set aside for later. The Warlock looked up from his workstation at the other Exo at his work station and gave him an agitated huff before trying to refocus on his project.

"Will you simply stop that ridiculous tapping?" Nope, no focus in what he was doing, whatsoever. His eyes shot back up and he glared at the Hunter.

"Only if you come with me and help restore order." Entity replied while increasing the pace of his tapping.

"What are you going on about? Did you lose something on a Bounty again?"

"No." The reply came out sharper than he had intended, but he noted that Sage didn't look offended at all. "Sushi… There is a riot going on outside the Vanguard's chambers. We need to go help."

"They have the Titan Guard."

"The Titans are stuck and can't advance into the courtyard. The majority of the Guardians are being indifferent toward the small rebellion. They want to leave the Tower to work, so they are letting this play out."

"Say we do help, I don't even have a wea-"

"You won't need one, I just need a spotter." Entity quickly cut off Sage. Seeing the other Exo was hesitating he pressed his advantage. "C'mon Sushi, help me out with this for old time's sake?" He could clearly see the conflict passing over the other Exo now.

He felt triumphant about the decision the Warlock was about to make. That was until he reached under his desk and pulled out his old helmet. He didn't place it on his head, just stared at it. Like the small black visor would tell him all the secrets he could ever want.

Where were these musings coming from? Entity shrugged as he just let it pass off as simple boredom. Sushi's life could be exciting, even if it only existed in Entity's head.

"Alright, let's go save the day again. Where are we headed to?" The other Exo's optics focused on Entity as he turned his helmet around to place on his head. Standing as he did so.

"That's the spirit! Now hurry up you piece of outdated tech."

"Hey!"

It took the two only moments to reach the now crater ridden plaza. It appeared that the fighting had indeed been pushed to here. Pockets of Guardians could be seen fighting one another, and using the various booths and the storage pillars as cover.

"Well this is unsettling." Sushi commented as he watched what appeared to be a Hunter was blasted by a Titan's grenade. The poor man was launched through the air and crashed to the ground near the pair with as much grace as he did on take-off, none.

Something caught the older Exo's eyes but he didn't dwell on that for long as Entity was currently tugging on his cloak to get him to move. With one last look at the body he followed his friend up what seemed a complicated maneuver to reach the top of the storage pillars. Where, oddly enough, a few birds sat on the edge uncaring for the firefight and literal fire beneath them.

"You can bird watch later! I need you to spot for me!"

"Right, right!" Sushi complied as he dropped to his stomach and peered over the edge, hoping to avoid any incoming fire.

Entity settled his rifle down and peered through the scope and called out his first target. With a quick confirmation from Sushi, he pulled the trigger. The stun rounds he had loaded did their job well. The first shot put down one rebellious looking Titan in a rather hysterical fit of electricity.

A few more had been dropped and Sushi began to notice something else. He looked through a pair of binoculars he had to get a closer look at one of the fallen rioters. There was an odd looking patch that was obviously attempted at being covered up.

"Entity." Sushi began. "These riots I believe are orchestrated."

"What makes you say that?" The other Exo asked as he pulled his head away from the scope.

"I'm looking at what appears to be an Awoken Hunter, at our 1:30. Left arm, take a good look and tell me what you see."

The sniper took his time to find the called out target and to analyze what Sushi was going on about. He felt his servos freeze in their processes as he tried to recognize the symbol that had been what looked like it had been hastily burned.

"Commandos, from the Reef. Looks like the Intel and Counter Terrorism." Entity now recognized it, Sushi had just confirmed it to him. "Wasn't that Joanna's unit before she became a Guardian?" Entity nodded silently. That was one of the things Jo had divulged to him and a select few others. She had been a commando with the Reef and they had been very effective at what they did.

An anti-terrorist unit was now causing riots on the Tower and acting very much like terrorists. It made some sort of morbid sense; they knew how terrorists operated and how to put them down. They could use their training and experience to be the perfect terrorists.

This was bad. Oh so very bad, and they needed to let the Vanguard and the Speaker know just what was going on.

.

A sudden jerking motion brought Raz back into the land of the conscious. He groaned and felt the pain of his resting joints going back into motion, coupled with the stiffness from his body healing itself while he had blacked out. Again.

"Twinkles."

"Yes?" The Ghost materialized near Raz's head.

"I've really got to kick this damned habit of mine." He made a sweeping gesture to the inside of the hold of his jump ship as if explaining it all. "I'm tired of waking up on the deck of my damned ship, feeling like hammered shit." He let his hands fall back to the floor as he refused to move from his prone position.

"I think I understand what you mean." His Ghost calmly stated as it floated away from his tormented companion.

"No you don't." Raz continued and raised one hand with a finger extended as if making some great point. "I want to feel like that after a night at the bar. Drinking until I can do whatever I want and then wake up promising myself never again." He paused to let his hand fall back down and laid it on his chest. "It's a cycle; you don't drink so you don't know about it."

"Trust me, I know all about it, Guardian. I see you do it with that horrid woman all the time." The Ghost nimbly dodges the half-hearted swing that Raz swung it's way. But it wasn't prepared for a second contender and was sent flying as a boot had connected with the small piece of Light.

"The fuck you mean by that?!" Jo planted her boot on Raz's chest as she watched the multi-colored Ghost recover from it's unpredicted flight. Raz only groaned about something being heavy before the weight increased and all his breath was shoved out. Shushing any other complaints he had about breathing or the fact she was had a boot planted on his fingers. He'd be fine after a few minutes.

"I… Er… I didn't mean you, Joanna." The Ghost was backing itself slowly away from the Awoken Titan and was slightly relieved that it was clearly out of her reach.

"Is that so? Is Raz going to the bar with other people that I'm not aware of?" She asked in a mock-sweet voice as she pushed more of her weight on Raz. His sole response was a long wheeze; she could tell he didn't care for her theatrics at this moment. Only wanting her to get off of him so he could breathe easily again.

"What are you doing here, Jo?" Raz finally managed to ask from his spot on the deck beneath her. "Cause last I checked this is still my ship." He finally decided he had enough of her stepping on him and he pushed her foot off of him so he could sit up. The woman flailed her arms as all the weight she had placed on him was displaced.

"Yeah, well you took your time waking up and we arrived at the edge of the Reef. You know, to start up Archivia's mad scheme to save the universe." Jo quickly finished righting herself from when she was just caught off-balance. "Or some bullshit like that. I honestly just hope we can walk away from this all in one piece."

She held out a hand and Raz took the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled up by the smaller woman. He shook himself a few times to get the stiffness out of his joints and reached up to pop his neck a few times. He sighed happily as the Awoken only shook her head in slight disgust, she hated the sound of joints poping.

"Just get up to the flight station so we can start. We are getting behind schedule." She shuddered again as she pulled her Ghost out and returned to her own ship. Allowing Raz to climb the ladder behind him into the flight station and seat himself.

Not long after being seated he was bombarded by tactical displays and readouts from the various instruments just below eye level. His ship's hull read green across the board, as well as the layer of the energy shield around that. His armaments read to be nearly full, minus two tactical missiles. The radiation shielding was optimal, and didn't seem to be weakening anytime soon so he was safe from the hard radiation of the Reef. One indicator even told him he was currently level with what was considered the gravitational pull of the cluster of asteroids and clouds.

He tapped at a few displays to acknowledge the fact that they had indeed finished pre-flight checks and to dismiss any errors in alignment. Such trivial things, but it brought back a sense of familiarity to the past technician. He could remember that much of his old life, thankfully.

"Alright everyone!" Jo's voice suddenly came in over the transmitter. Raz quickly reached over and pulled at a nob, Jo's face took over one of the screens. "There is a Fallen skiff already in the Reef that will be leading us to a Ketch. Which according to our friendly Warlocks is a den of Thieves." She paused as not a sound followed her joke. "I'm being serious. It's the House of Thieves and they are planning something huge according to the things Archivia tells me."

"Yes. They seem to have been planning this for almost two decades." Archivia chimed in and Raz reacted quickly by pulling another nob and her face appeared on the screen next to Jo's. "Well that was when I stumbled onto a cache of information a few years back and was able to learn of these plans, partially."

Another voice started up and forced Raz to pull a third nob in the set so he could see the helmeted head of another Warlock. The mysterious Snow that Archivia had mentioned to them a few times.

"That was a few years ago. Our similar research forced us to meet when we realized someone else was hunting for these pieces of information." He explained quickly. Even though to Raz, it seemed the man had a slow and calm voice. It disoriented him slightly. "But there was one thing we are able to confirm, that one House was planning on annexing itself from their Kell, the Queen of the reef."

Raz looked at the different screens and wanted the most forefront question answered.

"Why the fuck should we care if the Fallen want to rebel against those asshats?" Jo suddenly blurted out and caught Raz completely by surprise.

"Well, they intend to involve the Tower, and as many Houses that they could get their hands on." Snow informed them. "Based off of what I had found the Thieves are orchestrating a series of schisms within the Reef and the Tower. As of today riots broke out at the Tower."

The hum from the different jumpships' engines was the only sound for several seconds. No one dared break the stillness of the moment, trying not to cause any adverse reaction.

"The fuck?!"

Never mind, adverse reaction was achieved regardless of either of the Warlocks staying silent.

"That doesn't matter now, Raz, what matters are that we will be entering the Reef to destroy the House of Thieves and their plans." Archivia told him over the channel before alerts and alarms filled the flight station.

Grumbling in annoyance Raz pulled the last nob and looked at the stern expression an Awoken pilot was giving him. She seemed to recoil slightly at the nearly growling Human before remembering her authority.

"By all that is holy and good in this world! What the fuck do you people want?" Raz shouted at the Awoken.

This turned out to be a poor idea as Twinkles announced to Raz that the interceptor and her wingmen had missile locks and were preparing to fire on them.

.

"Fucking disgusting creatures." Calrus, an Awoken Warlock spat as he watched two Dreggs drag away the body of their dead comrade.

Calrus shook his gloved hands attempting to get the Fallen's blood off of him. Luckily there wasn't much and he was soon becoming bored again. These little "spars" he had with the local Fallen never really lasted very long, and the House of Thieves fought hard to keep him away from their warriors. Or what had apparently passed for warriors in this pitiful House that schemed in the shadows.

He looked up idly towards his "Fireteam". Their Titan, Corde sat calmly on top of one of the tables and was staring off at one of the walls with a hand propped under his chin and not paying attention to anything around him. The massive Awoken would occasionally snap back into the real world and check a data pad that he used for messaging and the like. Corde preferred to stay with the more common system than with the Ghost network that all the Guardians preferred. Calrus knew who Corde was messaging, and it irked him, but he left it alone for now.

The other member of his team was a Hunter, or so she claimed. Alias was what she called herself when he had first met her, and she was the one who had recruited Corde, obviously after much effort to turn the other soldier of Light into their own loyal soldier. The woman had a knack for connecting with other people, and things, he noted dully as he noticed what she was doing. Alias made him sick with the amount of tolerance she gave to the other species, and she was currently busy chatting with the Kell of the House of Thieves.

He tried to move closer to the woman who was busy talking towards their small communication unit. The Kell seemed to be in good spirits as he didn't hear any threats or dismissive grunts coming from his end. In the end it seemed more like a conference call, he couldn't really find it in himself to care anymore about what they were talking about.

His eyes lingered on Alias a little longer before he walked over to the table where Corde sat. The man never acknowledged his presence, it didn't matter. Calrus didn't quite trust the Fallen and felt more comfortable beating them to a pulp or with the Titan when he was not in the mood to tear any of them apart. It was amazing however that he had agreed to do this little deal in the first place. Especially with how low he had esteemed the Fallen, but Alias had gotten them to follow her orders and had given them the keys to band together the majority of the other Houses on Earth and Venus. This had honestly surprised him.

The woman in question held some scary information, and it made him wary of her. That was all before she had revealed this plan she had built up after her resurrection on Venus. He had thought her mad, but the promise of control over the Fallen and the Reef with a weakened Tower that they could go and take with an army of all the Fallen Houses combined? The offer was too good to let go and it seemed all too realistic, even easy now.

"Hey can I talk to you, Calrus?" The voice of Corde cut in suddenly, his voice pulling the Warlock from his power rant musings. "Remember what we were talking about the other day? You know, about the recruitment of more Guardians in our 'army' thing?" Corde had gotten off of the table was now standing before Calrus and was twiddling his fingers as he tried to organize his thoughts.

The Warlock groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. This Titan had one weak point, friends. Friends were those annoying little people who felt like they were entitled to calling favors and diverting your attention to the actually important callings of the day. This wasn't the first time Corde had brought it up, and by the Sun he knew it wouldn't be the last.

"What do you want, Corde?" He decided to humor him. If it could only make the time pass by quicker, and possibly shut down the younger Awoken much faster.

"Well I was thinking about what you said about the fireteam I proposed, Orion, and-"

"No." Corde was cut off but continued as if he didn't hear the other Awoken.

"well two of the three are Awoken, so that has to count for something, right?" Corde looked at Calrus expectantly, not even realizing he had completely ignored his leader.

The man gave the Titan a level look before shaking his head and turning away. He ignored the constant pleas of his teammate and tried to tune out any noise that was being made. That didn't last long.

"Hey, glorious leader, something has happened!" Alias called out from her spot at the terminal. She continued without prompting. "It seems that the sentries have spotted several jumpships entering the Reef."

"Why do I care?" Calrus gave a gruff response, considering not even listening to her response.

"They are in our sector, and drawing in a patrol of interceptors. More would be on the way, but the Fallen have already jammed their long range radios." Alias informed him in a lazy manner, not even deigning him worthy enough to look at. "They will also be sending out a picket of Skiff's and support fighters in case they get too close."

Calrus stopped in mid-step, a thoughtful look crossing his features. This was an interesting development. Even with the Fallen and Awoken trying to impede these Guardians a gut feeling told him that they wouldn't be enough. The warriors of the Light would make it through to the Ketch, he knew what they were here for. No one was dumb enough to think otherwise.

"Well I guess we need to speed up our plans then, get things moving early you know?" He grinned as he continued out. He would need to prepare a special surprise for Corde's friends if they made it far enough.

.

A heavy sigh escaped from Baron Grutek's helmet as he looked over the shoulder of the pilot in his Skiff. They had reached the Awoken held Reef and easily slipped in. No resistance was boring and uneventful; it also made for horrible stories to the young warriors who would vie to be a part of his band.

"Baron Grutek, we are being hailed by the Thief Ketch, shall we open up to them?" The pilot questioned as she looked up from her controls. The Baron simply nodded and left the rest to her and her copilot. He wasn't needed up here.

The Baron's heavy steps announced his presence in the troop bay and most chatter died down as the few Captains and Vandals that accompanied him turned to watch him enter. Before he could speak the intercom crackled to life.

"Skiff, you are in violation of airspace. State your purpose and provide authorization codes or be destroyed." It was short and brief, it was also Awoken. Looks like the pilot had thumbed the control the wrong way if they could hear it.

"Understood and transmitting now, Guard." The pilot replied quickly and a brief silence followed.

"Alright, they are a bit old, but your codes check out." There was a brief moment of hesitation. "Now, state your business in this sector."

The Baron could tell that the pilot had not effectively thought of something if the silence was anything to go by. Wracking his brain he strode to a small box on the wall.

"This is Baron… Vor'Ker aboard the Skiff." He cringed at the terrible name he came out with, and could hear several Fallen snickering behind him. "I have been ordered by the House to scout a grouping of asteroids for future mining prospects."

He released the switch and allowed the line to sit quietly as he placed a hand over his eyes; they were probably as surprised as him to have someone interrupt the pilot. He could hear some discussion passing through the line, it was muffled, but it was not Fallen. He hoped his lie held up, if not, well they could just shoot the Interceptors down. He liked that idea better.

"Copy that, Baron Vor'Ker. Make sure to update your transponder and IFF codes before any more ventures." The Skiff pilot gave an affirmative and the line went dead.

The sounds of strangled laughter was coming from behind and he swung his head to the side slowly to see his Band. Oh they were struggling alright, and so was Watcher. The smug prick had his arms crossed as his body shook slightly with the silent laughter.

"Not one word, from any of you." He stormed off to the flight station to avoid listening to the outburst as no one could control themselves anymore.

.

The quiet had returned after the fireteam had quickly vanished. The stillness seemed heavier with the snowfall that was lazily drifting in to cover any trace of his prey. Travis sighed heavily as he was brought out of his musings to answer one of many questions asked of him.

"Look, I know what I saw, and I know that it will lead me to them." Travis spoke into the link his Ghost had created with the Vanguard. "I just need more Guardians. Or time, either will suffice."

"We'll see what we can do, this might help us actually." The voice of Commander Zavala came through the line. "The riots are starting to fall apart and order is being restored here."

Travis was currently seated by the Fallen tech that fireteam Orion had abandoned with the word 'Reef' scrawled on the lower side. His Ghost floated in what looked like an aimless manner, but was actually scanning the data that the other Ghost had mined for.

"The other Ghost had been in a hurry." His Ghost commented as it continued to work. "Left all the doors open for us to see what is going on. Well, most of it."

"What do you mean by that?" Cayde's voice entered the line.

"Well, the data they had pulled was incomplete." The Ghost informed. "The last file they dug out contains partial coordinates. Only what one would consider a horizontal line on a map of the Sol system."

The Hunter looked back at the single word, translated it said the location of the Reef. But he looked at it again. It was a Fallen Glyph, and they could change meanings due to slight alterations, or angles of placement.

Pulling himself closer to the glyph he turned his head slightly, and an idea came to him.

"Ghost, place a topographical map of Sol over this glyph. With the data we have received from the unit." His voice was quiet as the Ghost complied.

A small map formed over the glyph and a single line went lengthwise over a large part of the map. Something didn't look right, so he asked for the Ghost to rotate it for a moment. When the Reef met the line the Ghost stopped and that was when Travis smiled slightly.

"Found where they went, sirs and ma'am. I'll pull specific coordinates when I scout out the area to verify." He heard the Vanguard approve before the line was cut.

"I don't see it Guardian. Do you want to fill me in?"

Travis nodded as he looked at the map on the glyph. That Warlock was clever; she knew who had been sent after them. Knew that Travis had extensive knowledge of Fallen writing and language. The glyph was pretty much an arrow. One end was circled and was laid over Earth, while the other end capped off with half an arrowhead pointing to the Reef. The arrow stopped right where the line converged with the tip. She was definitely clever, and he would have praised her, if she wasn't a fugitive.

"We are going where that meets the coordinate line. We need to leave now." Travis ordered as he was suddenly taken into his jumpship and his Ghost plugged in the data for one of the craziest hunches he had ever received.

He never doubted those hunches; it was what kept him alive. It was what kept many Guardians alive and that was why it was taught at their boot camp. Initial instincts are in most cases always right and he hoped that it carried true even now as he felt his ship make the jump towards the Reef.

Thankfully the trip was relatively short and he had quickly emerged from the FTL to the edge of the Reef. As he let his senses come back around he scanned his equipment and even through the view-screen. Hoping to spot any sign of the Guardians he was after. His eyes stopped on something and he had to do a double take to find it again. He couldn't see what had caught his attention and was about to give up when he saw it again.

An explosion, followed by another one, and followed by even more. He sighed as he reached for his controls, he should report in and tell the Vanguard. But this was his chance to close in on them.

"Damnit, Ghost!" The small shard of Light appeared near his head. "Send our coordinates to the Vanguard with a confirmation of the Guardians being here and tell them to send lots of back up. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better." He cursed again as he pushed the throttle and with a small jerk his ship leapt forward and into the Reef.

**A/N: So...? I hope some people enjoyed it, and I feel like this chapter could have done a bit better. For that I again apologize, dear readers, and hopefully most time constraints will be taken away so I can work more freely on this. I appreciate any and all comments and critiques! Remember Guardians, Keep on Keepin' on!**


	10. Chapter 10

**CH. 10- Jet Black Dress**

**I return once again! I'll keep this part short, once again, I thank all of you who have been reading my story! Just remember, I don't own Destiny, Activision and Bungie do.**

Once upon a time there was a man who had said that no plan had ever survived first contact. That man, in Raz's now humble opinion, was a fucking genius and deserved a Pulitzer for those words if he or she hadn't already received one. Who really knew plans could fall apart in a moments notice, well this was a great example of that happening. He knew that coming up with a plan was going to bite him in the ass later for some reason, but he just had to act on his gut sometimes. Even if had the possibility of him being chased by a pair of angry Awoken pilots from a Reef patrol.

Raz cursed loudly as his jumpship rocked again from the burst fire from the Reef Interceptors. He tried to ignore the myriad of klaxons and flashing displays all over the flight station telling him of hull damage, depleted shielding or that he was being fired upon. All these were minor in his head as he fought with al his might to maintain control the small craft. His Ghost chose that time to materialize right beside his head to apparently offer it's own input to the situation. It seemed to be taking stock of the situation and the mood of it's pilot, who was rapidly flipping switches to acknowledge the fact that his ship was dying in a rather unfortunate way.

"We can't take another hit like that, the aft shields won't hold out, and neither will the plating along the hull." Twinkles paused as his nodes rotated in calculations. "I would advise in abandoning the ship and getting into one from your squad-mates before they get another lock on us."

Raz groaned as he listened to the shard of Light. He knew the shields were nearly gone, and that his ship's plating wasn't thick enough to handle another few hundred rounds of auto cannon fire. He especially knew that it wouldn't come close to handling another salvo of missiles, which sadly the last one had taken the last of his chaff and flares. How was he supposed to know that their tech was also good at detecting archaic forms of countermeasures? He continued his silence as he jerked the control stick to the side forcing his ship to bank hard to avoid another burst from the Awoken. He would really appreciate not getting distracted right about now.

"Raz! We are getting the reports from Twinkles!" Jo's voice cut in through the noise. Raz growled in annoyance as his eyes shifted over to her visage on the small screen. He sighed, stupid Ghost, it shouldn't have told her but he was sure Jo messed with the OS in some way where it was to spy on him at all times. "You know there is space on my ship! Now hurry up and abandon the Sturm!" Raz's eyes narrowed slightly as he thought hard. He couldn't abandon ship just yet. The other three's ships hadn't gotten a good enough lead on him and Twinkles to stay out of sight of the interceptors. He wouldn't let them suffer the same fate as him.

"I got a better idea, Jo." The line was silent for a brief moment as they all seemed to let Raz's words sink in. He couldn't tell what Jo was thinking, but whatever it was it was probably derisive, rude or crude. It could possibly have been all the above for all he knew and cared, that was actually the most likely option, all the above.

"Oh shit… You catch that Archy? Raz has another brilliant plan." Jo deadpanned over the channel.

"Give him some credit, his plan partially worked, this time." Archivia defended the Human, his eye twitched at the underhanded comment about this time. "He managed to destroy one of the Interceptors and keep his ship intact so far."

"He caught the one ship's pilot with her pants down! That doesn't fucking count!" Jo yelled out as she made to swerve around what looked to be a piece of an old navy destroyer. "Also only partially? His plan was doomed to begin with! If he can take one of those interceptors in a fair fight, I'll be impressed and I'll wear a dress for a week straight." Raz cracked a grin at the prospect.

"You willing to bet on that?" Jo eyed the screen suspiciously from her seat before nodding slowly. "Good, now watch this!" He yelled out excitedly before jumping into action.

Raz pushed forward on his controls and forced the nose of his ship to point down and before his Ghost could even start to question what was he planning, Raz reached for the ejection handle. It was in the classic in between the legs position and as he grabbed it with one hand Raz unbuckled himself from the crash seat.

"What are you doing…? You aren't going to go with the chair?" For the machine's part, it actually sounded worried.

"Let's hope this actually works." Raz muttered to Twinkles. The Ghost quickly dematerialized into Raz's armor with a quick 'oh no'. With a tug the handle came up and out, forcing a chain reaction that sent the view screen flying into space followed quickly by the seat.

.

The two remaining interceptors were swerving past smaller asteroids and when possible taking pot shots at the rear Guardian's jumpship. It was obvious that this one was being the armored rear of the formation they were chasing. Unfortunately for them this pilot had been ready for them since the start.

After they had issued their demands the jumpship had immediately opened fire and had destroyed one of the support wings. The wing commander had been shaken briefly from the destruction of one of their ships. She had immediately called for all shields up and weapons fired. Since they were already armed.

The Guardians had started hightailing into the Reef with the yellow ship in the back, which made it all the easier to keep track of visually. The only problem so far was that the pilot was obviously putting all power into the shields and not trying to escape them all that quickly. The other Guardians had quickly vanished from sight. Damn.

Now they were playing a deadly game of cat and mouse in this maze of asteroids and the occasional wreck of a ship. That was, until the ship exposed it's belly to them suddenly. What were they thinking? Was this another ploy to get them to lower their guard?

"Sudden deceleration! We got an ejection! The pilot is bailing!" The other Awoken pilot reported to the wing leader. The commander noted this as true as two smaller contacts were picked up on the scanners. The view screen and the ejected Guardian in their seat. This would be easy pickings now since the support for the Guardian had vanished into the Reef. This Guardian had gotten the jump on them and had destroyed one of her support wing pilots, but she had the pilot cornered now. She would have him ended for his crimes!

"You take out the ship! I'm going for the pilot, and remember," The Commander hesitated for a moment before adding a comment offhandedly, "for the Queen."

"Aye aye ma'am, my life for the Queen." The other responded quickly before decelerating to get a clearer firing solution. Her auto cannon spat out more rounds and it quickly ate through the dying shields and the weaker under plating.

The wing leader zipped past the abandoned jumpship in search of the ejected Guardian, her fingers hovering over the trigger for the anticipated kill. Her eyes scanning the debris and her radar at the same time, where was the bastard? Her mind was racing as fast as her eyes were pivoting to find her target. She had to find him, it was necessary. She needed to find the pilot and kill the pilot. She needed to- What was that ungodly tapping sound?

Her head shot up as she looked at the view screen, and a massive Titan stared back at her in bright yellow and green armor. The man was anchored to her ship by a massive combat knife, that could easily double as a sword, dug into the plating near the edge of the screen and he gave her a slight wave that she could only respond with an astounded stare. She was knocked out of her trance from the explosion of the jumpship and went for her comms switch.

"I found the Guardian! He is on my ship! I need assistance!" Her voice was an octave higher than she had wanted, and certainly far less commanding than it should have been. Even in this situation.

"What…?" The hesitant yet nervous response of her wingman came over the line.

"Just get over here and get him off! He seems to be looking for a way in or to get me out!" The commander yelled back over the line.

"I wouldn't be too worried ma'am." Her wingman responded confidently. "Based on the images I'm seeing he is just a Human and they shouldn't know how to operate our equipment very well if at all."

The commander could have snapped back a retort, but she was cut short when the Titan caught her attention again with a series of rapid movements. She watched as he pantomimed something and it looked like putting on a mask or a helmet. Or sealing her suit. By the Queen! She started panicking again as she sealed her suit and watched him reach right for where the emergency release was located near the view screen, he figured it out.

"Damnit, I need backup now! He knows!" Her last yell was quickly followed by silence as she was ejected from the interceptor and gave him the middle finger as she launched past him, his response was another silent wave as he climbed into the flight station and settled in as best as he could.

Squeezing into the flight station wasn't all that hard to Raz, for the most part. But getting himself situated on the controls was much harder he realized as he gazed at the equipment. He looked at the displays and made one solemn note, most of the equipment was dead on an automatic purge protocol, and he cursed. This plan sucked and was doomed to fail, but he would never admit that to Jo even on his deathbed.

"Any systems you can interface with, Twinkles?" Raz asked as his Ghost materialized and swiveled around quickly. "And if you could hurry, that would be great. Since you know, we might get shot at again."

"Working as fast as I can, the systems are pretty barren now, almost nothing left here. I think I can scavenge something from nav." His Ghost reported back to him.

"I don't want any information on systems other than weapons! I need to be able to shoot back since the other interceptor is most likely on the way here!"Raz shouted at the Ghost, trying to get the machine to focus on the task at hand.

"We can operate very little in the weapons, most are unresponsive if not there at all." Twinkles answered as it tried to dig more into the Awoken system. "But I'll see what I can scrounge up, also I got directional thrusters back online. No engines, those controls were purged with most of the data."

"That'll work, get us turned around and spin up the auto cannons. I want everything ready before I need to evac." The Ghost bobbed at Raz's request and soon the ship was spinning around just in time to see his old ship explode from a pair of missiles. "Damn, I'm gonna miss that ship. Had her for about two years." He commented sadly.

"Well it has actually been-"

"I don't care!" Raz interrupted suddenly as he watched asteroids fly by as the ship came to a stop facing the other interceptor. He gave a mock salute to the other pilot before reaching for the controls and taking a wild guess. Pushed the only glowing button.

.

Further in the Reef three jumpships had grouped in the hollow of a larger asteroid. They weren't alone for long as a Skiff pulled up alongside them cautiously and hovered in place for a moment before gravity tethers were released and it locked itself into place alongside the asteroid.

There was a brief silence between the ships before the Skiff opened a line to the network the Guardians were all using. The line crackled slightly as the different systems fought to be compatible with one another. The moment passed and the line cleared up allowing the Guardians to hear the unclear chatter of several Fallen in the background. At least the overall radiation of the Reef wasn't interfering too badly.

Jo wasn't paying much mind to the radio chatter as much as her IFF transponder. Watching the little blip that represented Raz's jumpship. Her breath hitched as she watched it fade from the small display. She waited a moment, it didn't return. She flipped a switch and cycled the power, after the reboot the blip did not return. Ignoring the chatter between the pair of Warlocks and the Fallen she addressed her Ghost.

"Eisen-meower." The Ghost appeared next to her left hand. "I need you to scan for Raz and Twinkles. I need to find them."

"I understand, Guardian. Just one moment." The Ghost seemed to drift to one side as it worked. "There. Found him! He is still alive and operational." The Ghost reported, and if she wasn't sure it sounded like the Ghost was acting proud.

"Good work, I want you to set up a trans-mat. Get him in here." She ordered curtly. She could still hear things in the background, Archivia was talking. It wasn't all that important to the little Titan. She'd get the condensed version later and she wouldn't pay that much mind either.

"Setting up the link." The Ghost hesitated. "Twinkles is declining the handshake, sending another packet. Attempting to force it through." Another brief moment. "Would you like me to drop him on his head in the hold? For worrying you?" It almost sounded hopeful towards this option.

"No, I have a better idea." She gave her Ghost an admonishing tap before continuing. "So this is what you are going to do…"

While Jo was concocting her evil plans Archivia, Snow and the Fallen were actually getting real work done. That's what Archivia liked to think, but so far there was just a bunch of arguing about technical points in their operation.

The Fallen Baron was absolutely certain that he could get them onto the Ketch with no problems at all, while Snow had argued back that it was too obvious. Especially with the chaos that they had caused upon entry to the Reef, so they needed a new plan of action. No one was budging on any point and it was driving her crazy.

"Why not send a signal to the Awoken? Like a mayday?" Archivia asked finally. There was a silence over the line with the occasional snap or pop from interference.

"That could work, they would send out a small patrol to investigate, or something larger since the Titan destroyed at least one ship." Snow thought aloud. "Shoot, they may be on their way here now. A perfect distraction." There was an obvious shift in his tone. "Any word from the Titan? I haven't heard a peep from him in a while."

"He's a bit, hmmm, tangled up at the moment. But I have him on my ship." She heard a few sounds of approval from the other Guardians and a confused grunt from the Baron. "Regardless, following protocol the reinforcements should be here within fifteen minutes." She had caught the end of the conversation and decided to add to it.

"Understood." The Baron grunted over the line. "We will drop a beacon on our approach towards the Ketch, it will be delayed but will start transmitting. We will hold the hangar for your ships to enter."

The Skiff detached it's tethers and proceeded to drift away from the asteroid before engaging it's drives and drifting through the asteroids almost gracefully. The Fallen aboard were all hand picked by Baron Grutek to board the Ketch and kill anyone or thing that occupied the hangar space. They were all promised rewards and promotion for their success. If they succeeded, but that was fine with the lower Vandals and Dreggs. A chance to climb their society's ladder did not come often like this.

The Baron stood behind the pilot and watched through the view port as the Ketch grew bigger and bigger. They were definitely within the massive ships' defensive weapons range. But it seemed the transmission they sent out had worked like a charm, as the Humans said. The Ketch even had a hangar designated for them to land, and unfortunately it was teeming with many different Houses. This was going to get messy and with a wry chuckle, this would get interesting.

"Drop the beacon, have it begin transmitting in three minutes. That should give us enough time to cause a riot in the hangar." He called out his orders and the crew in the hold let out war cries and a singled at Vandal nodded silently. The Baron called him out. "You will have your vengeance and honor back soon enough, Watcher." The Vandal only nodded again as he looked over his rifle, making sure it was good to go for the boarding they were about to attempt.

He felt gravity start to settle over him in a different direction as the Skiff entered the hangar and slowed. The artificial gravity of the Skiff shutting down so the Fallen could acclimate to the new gravity. Most would not give this mind, but Watcher was a sharpshooter, gravity affected his shot in the smallest of margins. Luckily there would be no wind or humidity to deal with on a filtered air system of the ship. Much easier to take shots in.

As the skiff slowed to a stop in the hangar many of the Fallen that had been milling about took an idle interest in the ship. A few pointed at the symbol of the House of Thunder and chattered amongst themselves. It was odd, the Thunder were allied to the Kings, and the Kings had refused to work with the other Houses. Most shrugged it off, while a few subtly reached for their weapons, doubting.

.

It had been three minutes after the Skiff had dropped off the beacon before it began to transmit a distress on all frequencies. This broadcast was picked up not only by the Fallen that were nearby, but also by the currently arriving interceptors from the Awoken patrols.

The Awoken interceptors didn't take long to zone in on the signal and begin their approach on what appeared to be a Wolf's distress signal. To them, the crazed Guadians had attacked them after they had gone after the patrol that had encountered them. It seemed that those followers of the Traveler had no respect for the small amount of peace that the two groups held for one another.

The commanding officer of the relief wing cleared his mind as he spotted where the beacon was floating. Checking his equipment again he activated the long range antenna on his ship before broadcasting a signal back to the defensive groups back at the main fleet.

"This is Captain Jaren! We have an unidentified Fallen Ketch at our position! We are requesting immediate support! I say again this is Captain Jaren and we have encountered an unidentified Fallen Ketch and need immediate support!"

He killed the long range radio before swapping channels to communicate with the fifteen interceptors that had accompanied him. He paused before speaking, he needed to do something to assist in the capture or identification of the Ketch.

"Alright squadron, we need to split up and create a picket around the Ketch. We don't know which House this Ketch belongs to but we are going to stop any and all ships entering and departing. We will not engage the Ketch until reinforcements arrive in…" He paused as he read an active feed on a monitor. "Five minutes. So be ready and keep your weapons hot!" He watched as a display lit up with several acknowledgment lights.

"By the Queen's tits." He muttered a low curse as his ship accelerated and he found his position in the picket the ships were creating. The formation was rather spread out, but it would have to do for a few minutes. It hadn't taken long before several of the indicators for the interceptors began flashing as they had actively engaged small Fallen recon ships or even a few fighters. "This is going to be a long day. I just know it."

Luck would have it that not too many incidents occurred within the five minute time frame. The Fallen had for the most part left them alone, trying to appear as harmless as possible. Or just trying to shore up their defenses as best as they could. Captain Jaren could only speculate since he wasn't sure that any orders would be given to capture the ship. Then again, taking a fully built Ketch was sometimes easier than building a ship from scratch. Sometimes.

The first few ships arrived in the spirals of light that associated with the warp jumps, even with the short distance between their home base and here they warped in. It made reinforcing positions much easier and it lowered the death toll by quite a bit. His displays lit up with new messages and orders. He was to reform his squadron and lead a fast attack group. They had essentially become head hunters, and the targets were ships like heavy bombers and skiffs. Mostly armored or tough targets to kill.

Dispersing the orders to his squadron, the remaining acknowledgment tags flickered green before their positions on the indicator began to move. Falling into a standard position with their own wings the hunt began for anything bigger than them. Whatever God they wanted to believe in was apparently smiling upon the Awoken, because there were plenty of targets to choose from.

.

"Now is our chance!" Jo called over the radio channel. Her attention was mainly drawn to the battle that was just kicking off around the Fallen Ketch. It looked like all the pieces to their plan was falling into place. "Now we just have to board the Ketch!"

"Understood, you lead the way, Titan." Snow commented as he began to spin up his engines. "We will have to be fast to avoid the crossfire and not get picked off. I have the hangar bay that the Thunder will have taken marked for us so head there." He didn't get a verbal response as Jo's jumpship drifted for a moment before the engines flared to life and her ship took off like a shot.

"Copy that, I got the mark on my nav, I'll be there soon." The Awoken woman reported as she turned off several systems to give more energy to her shielding. She was going to need it when she reached the immediate area around the Ketch.

The danger surrounding the Ketch now had definitely been underplayed in her mind as she now took stock of the situation. The Awoken had taken their beacon and sight of the Ketch more seriously than she had predicted. Not only was there fighter support everywhere, but instead of just one ship, there was a whole battle group there. The massive ships were staying just outside of the effective range of the Ketch's main guns, but that also meant they were mostly out of the fight as well. They were able to provide some minor AA fire with their point defense guns, but the Fallen weren't stupid enough to attack a battle group with a handful of fighters and skiffs. This fight would revolve around the House of Thief's Ketch much to the Dismay of the defenders.

Jo glanced at her RADAR and spotted that the IFF tags on Archivia and Snow were close behind her and she sucked in an anticipatory breath. This was going to get tricky to lead them all through. But she would do it, and was currently succeeding in bobbing and weaving not just through the asteroids that occupied the Reef. She was now avoiding the debris from Awoken and Fallen ships that now littered the airspace that the Guardians were flying through. Her ship rocked every few moments as either stray shots or even deliberate ones struck the hull of her craft. Her eyes constantly shifted back to the RADAR to confirm she hadn't lost anyone in their mad dash from their little hidey hole. It was also in these moments she was glad Raz was currently stuck below decks on her ship, if the man had been piloting the Sturm he would be using up his ammunition and most likely trying to fight his way through. Most likely to get blown up himself, she hoped that the hangar situation was going better than theirs.

The situation in the hangar was just as chaotic as the massive dogfight that was going on outside. When the Awoken had shown up in force the Fallen had started demanding answers from the host House. They could only shrug in confusion as well, and that didn't go over well with the representatives from the different Houses. Shots were fired, and the Thunder took advantage of that by activating their Skiff's weapons systems and firing with reckless abandon at anything that moved. Now all that remained was a glorious free for all.

Different colors of capes swirled as Captains or Barons dueled with their energized shock swords while Vandals and Dreggs mowed down the other House counterparts in hails of super heated plasma. Shanks and Servitors darted around to add their fire and suppress any threats to their appointed masters, and most were shot down rather quickly. But this chaos was exactly what the Thunder needed as the troop bay opened and their boarding party took action.

Baron Grutek led the charge with a deep howl and his swords tore into the first unfortunate being that came within his reach. The Vandal screeched in pain as it tried to hold it's chest together while it collapsed on the deck near more of the dead. The massacre continued as the Thunder's elite team hunted down any who would oppose to a Guardian boarding the Fallen vessel, meaning everyone.

Watcher was comfortably positioned on top of the Skiff with his enhanced rifle in his hands. The barrel barking off a new shot every moment or two, his sights swapping even faster. He would have to give Priest Durnisk a high praise on the new model of rifle, the heat sinks and recyclers did well to compensate for the high rate of fire and stress the gun was being subjected too.

Unfortunately the fun didn't last long as the rest of the Fallen had either escaped into the passage ways or had been killed by the battle royal. This didn't stop the next surprise as several warriors of the Thunder to dive aside in fright as a jumpship flew through the atmospheric barrier and slammed into the deck before scraping to a halt against the wall. Watcher idly noted that the craft was also on fire, but that was secondary to the entrance the thing made. How would this plan succeed if the stupid pilot had killed themselves on entry? The fools.

He was gratefully proven wrong as the hatch on top of the ship exploded out and a slightly shaken form of a woman stepped out and fell to the deck below. He could hear the heavy breathing as she seemed to be praising the fact she made it alive. Two more ships quickly entered but landed in a more suitable manner before their pilots rushed out to see the outcome of their friend.

"Jo! Are you alright?" Archivia called as she slid down to her knees by her friend. The smaller woman nodded multiple times while still breathing heavily. "What were you thinking?! You could have been killed by that stunt!" Jo reacted accordingly and shrunk into her armor and hunched away slightly from her friend. The Warlock only sighed before rubbing the back of Jo's unarmored neck.

"Mother fucker!" Raz's below was heard as an escape hatch blew off it's hinges. The Titan in question was visibly seething as he dropped the foot or so to the floor. "Why the fuck is their a cage in your ship? Was that for me?" He questioned loudly as his boots thumped on the floor while he approached.

Archivia stood in front of Jo as if to stop the approaching Titan. Now that she got a better look, his armor was dented in a very even pattern. He must have collided with one side rather hard and that had not been enough to stop his bulk. She was preparing to reprimand the Human when he spoke up again.

"Not only that you didn't realign the inertial dampeners! So when we hit that gravity well you were lucky we didn't spin like a fuckin' top!" He gently pushed Archivia aside as he dropped to a crouch. "You could have been killed up there in the flight station, Jo." His voice was nearly a whisper now. Causing the other Titan to hold her breath and lift her head to meet his gaze. "Now come on, we have a job to do." He reached his hand out to her and she gingerly took it before she was rather quickly jerked to her feet.

"We must hurry." Snow jumped into the conversation. Grutek and Watcher approached them as well to listen to the new orders. "Jo and I will head to the bridge to get all the data we need and shut down any fail safes the Ketch has." Jo nodded and she squeezed Raz's hand that she had refused to let go of earlier. The man returned the gesture after a moments hesitation. "While Raz and Archivia will go to engineering and find the flight logs. We want to know where this ship has been, find any and all hiding places that the House of Thieves use or have been. It will help narrow down potential future strikes on the remains of this House." Raz nodded and so did Archivia, this sounded simple enough.

"Baron, you and your men are to keep the hangar secure for our departure, especially if we need to leave in a hurry." The Baron nodded and gazed at the warriors he brought with them. They were dispersed about the hangar looting from the dead.

"Regular fuckin' pirates." Raz snorted out in a laugh. "Best road trip, ever."

"I will accompany you to the bridge, Warlock." Watcher stepped forward. The Human looked ready to argue but only nodded. Nothing he could do or say would dissuade the Vandal from going out for his revenge.

"Now that we have our tasks, let's get this done." Jo stated before giving Raz's hand one last squeeze before taking off with Snow and Watcher. Raz gave her one last look before nodding at Archivia and they sped off in the other direction.

.

The Kell of the House of Thieves sat upon his throne with his many attendants milling about. But he paid them no heed as his gaze was locked on the three Awoken before him. He growled in disgust, he should have just killed them long ago. But they had showed promising results if he cooperated with them.

Now he was dearly regretting that decision. His glare sharpens as he looks at the woman who had convinced him of this fool's plan. He needed to act, and he needed to act now or he would not only lose his Ketch or House. But he could lose his life as well. It had been bad enough that most of his agents were about on their assignments seeking more help but now the Awoken had shown up! Not just a scouting party or patrol, no, but a whole battle group against his one Ketch. His other ships were nowhere near enough to return and assist him in time. Not only that, but the other Houses who had sent teams as a sort of sign of peace had gone rouge in the Hangar and throughout the Ketch. He was loosing control, and now he was receiving reports that Guardians had boarded his ship.

"Engage the engines! Turn us about, we are leaving the Reef!" The Kell roared to the surprise of the Fallen all around him. The Guadians froze in shock before the Warlock stormed up to him with the Hunter close behind.

"What is the meaning of this?! We have a plan you must follow!" The Warlock howled as he squared himself up to the seated Kell. What was his name again? The Kell racked his brain in search of it, oh right, Calrus. Sure the plan was falling apart, but they still had to maintain some semblance of order, or all the years of work would come crashing down in a matter of hours.

"You will not order our Kell around, Guardian!" A Kell's Guard yelled back at the Warlock. The overly promoted Dregg stood tall as he attempted to stare down the smaller Guardian. The Awoken man scoffed at the Dregg, but the Fallen made no move to back down.

The Warlock glared at the guard and his hand closed into a tight fist. Void energy wrapped itself around his fist and coiled it's way up his arm, ready for its master's order to strike. The Guardian did not, however, as the hand from one of his companions pulled him back slightly. He never noticed that Corde had moved up and he did it silently as well.

He pulled himself from the other's grip and quickly left the bridge. He would deal with the threats boarding the Ketch himself if he had to. At least it would help him vent his anger and frustration on something more than pitiful Thief Dreggs. Corde watched him leave and he quickly turned to look at Alias before looking at the door.

"I'm, uh, I'm going to go make sure Calrus doesn't do anything stupid." He jerked his thumb towards the door and took off at a run after his leader. The bridge fell into a relative silence after the Titan had left. Alias never looked at the Kell, and he was thankful for it, he didn't want to deal with her either.

.

The battle that had been raging had garnered a few spectators. Mainly through a lone Guardian jumpship with high powered cameras that was actively broadcasting the feed to the Vanguard back on Earth. Travis watched the scene with a morbid fascination as he waited on the Vanguard, whom, much to his surprise were actually having a civil discussion about the topic at hand. The term civil being used in the most liberal and loose sense of meaning. He was more surprised that they weren't yelling at one another.

"Travis." Commander Zavala's voice finally cut through over the other two. "We need you to maintain your distance and await an opportune moment to go in and secure the rouge Guardians. We are providing you with several fireteams to assist in the matter." Travis nodded before looking back at the camera feed. This shit was going downhill very quickly, and at this rate there would most likely not be any Guardians to retrieve. But he would follow his orders and wait for the conflict to die down a bit before finding a way to seize the other Guardians.

**A/N: I feel like this chapter may be a good one, but the views/reviews will tell. I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter and that I continue to better as a writer as the end is nigh. So remember fellow Guardians! Keep on keepin' on!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Well I hope I didn't take too long with this update. Which I feel is a huge milestone in my story, so also if you want, and you should. Check out my buddy Reilly's story, Soldier of the Light. These two stories connect in a way, you'll see when you read 'em.**

**CH. 11- All as One**

This was terrible, and extremely boring. Travis drummed his fingers on the side console in his jumpship. He wasn't just extremely bored, he was terribly bored. He could only take watching the fighting around the Ketch for so long. He idly reached for the throttle for what he considered the umpteenth time before he reconsidered his actions.

He didn't want to sound ungrateful to the fact that he wasn't being shot at, but even dodging missiles and hails of autocannon fire were much better than sitting on the sidelines and watching the fight go on before them. It pained him to remember that he was following rather explicit orders of non interference from the Vanguard. This feeling was almost equally shared by all the Guardians that had accompanied him after the rouge Guardians.

"This is stupid, and we need to do something." He grumbled as he went back to drumming his fingers on the console. "I'll give them ten more minutes before we go in."

"Thank God!" Someone called over the open lines. "I'm fucking bored!"

"Hey this is for official use only! Who said that?" Another voice called out over the line.

"I said I was fuckin' bored, not fuckin' stupid!" There was a series of laughter as all the Guardians who were listening in on the conversation couldn't help but laugh. They were all bored too and needed a release to their tension.

"So yeah, ten minutes, and then we go in." Travis reiterated to his fellow Guardians. He set his chronometer and watched it for a few seconds. This was going to suck. He groaned as he went back to watching the battle. This was going to be a long ten minutes to wait.

.

After the group had separated from the hangar both groups had almost all met immediate resistance. Raz and Archivia were making a mad dash through the passageways and slowing down only for slow doors. A trail of dead and dying behind them. They didn't have as far to go as the other group, but with the battle raging outside they didn't want to get caught inside if the Awoken decided to just say fuck it and blow up the ship with them on it.

Raz's rifle spat out another short burst to knock out the Captain's shield before he planted the butt of the rifle in the Fallen's helmeted face. Sending it sprawling back and to the deck. Raz followed through with his momentum and left the dazed creature on the floor. Archivia right behind the Titan taking shots with her scout rifle to knock out the weaker obstacles such as Shanks or Dreggs.

This method seemed to be working well in their favor until a larger Baron appeared and smashed Raz into the bulkhead across where he had come from. Some choice words were heard from Raz and even the Baron was cursing in English as the two scuffled on the deck. Archivia attempted to line up a shot on the Baron but the two were moving so rapidly that she gave up and moved ahead towards a console so she could try to stack things in their favor. Like sealing the doors behind them and she had even found access to the local Shank computing core.

There was a grunt of pain behind her and she turned to see that Raz had turned a blade on the Baron who had tried to use it and kill the Titan. Raz's strength had apparently proven to be too much as the blade was slowly digging it's way further into the Baron's chest. With a few more jerks and shoves the blade sank in the rest of the way and the Baron went limp. Raz did as well, but from sheer exhaustion than dying.

"This was a terrible plan, by the way. I'm so tired." Raz grumbled as he finally extricated himself from under the Baron. Grabbing his rifle off the deck he walked over to where Archivia was working. "So what's the new science project?" She snorted a response before answering.

"I just turned all the Shanks from here to engineering against the Fallen, this should lighten the load a little on you." She smiled under her helmet as she saw the Titan stiffen and she also puffed her chest out a bit at his praise.

"That is badass! I'm glad I got you over Snow."

"Well knowing him, he is having them go slow and methodical all the way to the bridge. But he also probably found any shortcuts too." She sighed as she worked to open the next door, which was the last one between them and the engineering section of the ship. The next passage was several hundred feet long, but it was one straight shot and that would make this far easier.

Raz reloaded his auto rifle before nodding at Archivia who simply keyed the door and raised her rifle to give chase after Raz. The pair sped past groups of Fallen fighting each other and various Shanks fighting everyone. Raz let them do the majority of the fighting and the few that did take a shot at the pair of Guardians were shot down quickly.

Raz and Archivia used their ammo sparingly as they made the mad dash down the passageway. It nearly surprised him when they reached the other side with little resistance and he looked back to see that they were all still fighting amongst themselves. He would let them have this fight, he was after bigger prizes and that included flight logs. What he didn't expect was the massive fist of Titan to slam into his helmet when the door opened.

Backpedalling slightly he caught himself and as he brought his head back down he raised his rifle and fired a short burst at his new opponent. He was slightly surprised to see it ricochet off a shield that covered the dark purples of the Titan armor. Raz recognized that armor, it was Corde.

"What in the fuck?" Raz asked before yelping and diving to the side to avoid Corde's response with a hand cannon. The higher caliber rounds dug into the plating near where Raz had been and without any further questions he fired a longer stream into Corde before closing the distance.

Corde only stopped to reload and with that he was surprisingly quick. Flicking the revolver back into the weapon he fired a few more rounds, aiming for Raz's weapon. The Human used the weapon as a shield and it took the brunt of the attack before he hurled it at the Awoken. The opposing Titan swiveled to the side to avoid the weapon going at sub-sonic speed and was rewarded with Raz knocking the hand cannon out of his grip.

Raz was furious, he didn't know why Corde was doing this, but now he had to deal with Corde apparently helping the Fallen. He could have stopped to ask why his friend was doing this, there were many things he could have stopped to do. But he didn't, it was simple as that. Raz knew which side he was on and Corde knew that too, this was not some sappy T.V. drama where they could change each other's ways through talking. The victor did all the talking, and right now Raz had to prove he was better.

Archivia took the chance that Raz had given to her by sliding into one of the work stations and eliminating the Fallen working there. She was timing herself, and she knew that all of them were on the clock with the battle outside and inside the ship raging around them. She finished deploying her Ghost to get any of the flight logs she could from here before she heard the shot rang out. She was lucky that she was between the shooter and her Ghost.

Whirling around with her rifle she fired a trio of shots at another Warlock armed with a pistol. The first shot struck him in the chest and sent him flailing backwards while the rest went wide. Looking quickly back at her Ghost she huffed as she jumped and glided above the railing that the other Warlock had been using to help balance his shot.

Sweeping her rifle around she searched for her target and was lucky that Raz wasn't making too much noise with the other Titan, or the fact that the other Warlock lacked in stealth skills. She heard him coming and with a quick pivot and drop to her knee she jammed the barrel of her rifle in the man's groin before pulling the trigger. The man screamed a few octaves higher than he was used to as he used his powers over the Void to lash out at her instead of his weapon which he dropped.

Eyes wide Archivia jumped over the railing again and down to the main deck before turning and lobbing a grenade at the incapacitated man's general area. She would get lucky to even hit him. Guardian's recovered quickly, even from strikes like that. It wouldn't buy her much time but she could use it to check up on her Ghost, who was still safe and downloading the information and more. Her check came short when she heard the Warlock land behind her and start shooting at her.

Getting herself behind a solid object Archivia spotted him hiding by what looked like conveniently placed crates. Popping up she fired and forced him to duck long enough for her to prime and throw another grenade which the man deftly blocked with his Void abilities and forced her into cover with his own barrage of shots.

She hoped Jo wasn't getting into too much trouble with her two companions. A little bit hoped that her Titan friend was also in deep shit like they were.

.

Jo had tried to rush into the passageway with her two companions, but the they had other ideas. She realized this as she charged into the first enemy that the Vandals surrounding the one she had chosen as her first victim dropped with precise shots to the head. She knew that they were both playing supporting marksmen roles. She could handle that as long as they didn't take her kills.

Things were even more chaotic when she noticed that all the different colored Houses were fighting amongst themselves in the passageways. It helped make their trip easier, but what got her was the few Awoken that were scattered amongst the Fallen warriors. They seemed to be helping the House who controlled the Ketch, but who were they? She would find that out later, and as long as they didn't shoot at her-

A stray shot slid off her helmet, knocking her head to the side a bit.

"That's it! Killing you both!" She received confused glances from her companions who exchanged glances with a shrug each. She would later explain to them that she meant Fallen and Awoken were going to be her targets. Not just Fallen.

As they rushed through the different passageways and up stairwells their little crusade was slowing down. Jo was still climbing the steps two at a time, but there was more of a hesitation in her little leaps than there was before. She stopped at the top and took a few huffing breaths before looking back at Snow.

"Ok my walking GPS. Where the fuck are we?" Snow glanced at her before pulling out his Ghost and having it display a map.

"You see this here?" Jo nodded. "That's the bridge, and over here is us." He pointed at another spot.

"Oh for fuck's sake."

"I have been having us take this way on purpose though." He pointed at a spot that was what appeared to be in the next room. "This is a Servitor access path to the Bridge." He answered before anyone could say anything. "It will take us to right outside the bridge and it should be unguarded the whole way."

"Should be?" Jo asked skeptically as she cocked her hip to one side while looking at the map. "So when we come out?"

"Here." Snow pointed at a spot about thirty feet from the bridge. "It will be guarded, but we should get the drop on them." Jo snorted but realized something. "Now let's go, before they figure out where we are."

Snow went through the door with Watcher close behind before Jo could say anything. The asshole made a joke! She was going to get him later for this.

.

"It's been longer than ten minutes, Travis."

"I know. Now quiet down, the Ketch is slowing down. So we will have to be more careful since we don't know how bad it is inside."

"So are we going now?" Another voice asked, this one was clearly irritated with waiting.

"Yes, keep the formation tight, we want to minimize our signatures, let 'em guess how many of us there are." Travis pulled up an image of the Ketch for the ships to see. "We will be inserting here, team two you are heading to the bridge to secure anything of value there. I'll take team one to track down the Guardians. One of them is actively broadcasting their location so I'll handle that. Teams three and four will provide support and keep the Fallen or Awoken from blowing up our rides." He paused as he let that plan sink in. "Everyone got it?" There was a chorus of murmurs which he took as yes.

"Alright, let's go."

"Fucking finally!"

"Entity! Watch your mouth, I know it's you!"

.

Explosions rocked the occupants of the Ketch, forcing many to brace themselves on the bulkheads or various different work stations. Panic was spreading far and wide within the confines of the ship as not only was the chaos battering the hull of their great warship from the outside. But the inside was being torn apart by a similar chaos. The problems seemed unending this day.

Warriors from many different Houses had laid claim that this whole endeavor was a trap and were now attempting to fight their way to either freedom or the Kell of the House of Thieves. Adding another House under their control, and elevating themselves at the same time. It was a lofty goal, but one all the Fallen warriors shared. It was unfortunate that they had to fight through each other before they even got close to the Thief Kell. It also didn't help that there was a fireteam of Guardians aboard the Ketch and tearing their way through the ship.

Another body slumped to the deck as he started to bleed out, glaring at the Kell as his eyes dimmed. The massive Fallen barely registered this as he glared around the bridge, searching for any more challengers to his throne. Seeing none he lumbered his way towards the navigational control and looked over the holo-screen.

"What is our progress?"

"My Lord, we are only at 63% engine output, we aren't moving fast enough." Several more blips appeared on the screen and the Dregg looked closely at the small markings. "My Lord! We have more Guardian jumpships! They are in a holding pattern just off the Reef border, your orders?" The Dregg turned his head to look at his Kell.

"Put as much power that we can into the engines, do not change course. Force the Awoken to take care of their shots." He started chuckling darkly as straightened. "They wouldn't want to start a war now would they?" He asked no one in particular, so no one answered, that and they were too busy trying to keep the Awoken ships at a far enough distance from their critical systems.

"Now." The Kell started again. "Show in my next victim." He didn't have to wait long as the sound of gunfire was heard on the other side of the door. The Kell turned his head towards the door and tilted his head curiously. All of his challengers before had simply strolled in, believing they would win and that they would control his Ketch. But now there was a firefight going on outside the bridge, he liked this one. They were fighting to get to the bridge instead of demanding entrance because they were to be the future Kell.

"My Lord!" A Dregg ran over to him and dropped to a knee quickly. "Guardians are attempting to breach the bridge!" The Kell did pause slightly as he spotted the Awoken, Alias, tensing at hearing the Guardians had arrived. Was she expecting someone? He should have paid closer attention to her before today, but now was not the time to revel in his few mistakes.

It was good to see that his bridge crew and security were already in action positioning themselves around the door to stop the intruders without him actually giving the order too. They had honed their survival instincts rather well before this day. He could almost say he was proud of them, almost. The majority of the Captains and Vandals took up positions next to consoles and a few behind the scattered security Shanks. A somewhat tactically poor decision, but he let that one go.

The shooting and howling on the other side of the blast door suddenly stopped and the Kell tensed as he gripped his shock swords. He was getting excited, and was trying to school his nerves at the prospect of killing Guardians of the Traveler again. It had been far too long since he had squared off against that Thing's warriors, and he aimed to do as much damage as he could against them. Some new mounted pieces on his wall sounded perfect right about now.

But all he could do at the time being, was wait in silence as the Guardians seemed to take their time.

.

Jo smirked as her auto rifle barked a short burst of solid kinetic rounds into the last of the Vandals. The Fallen struggled to breath a little before collapsing on it's knees and finally to rest on it's face. It had taken them a good half an hour or so to reach the doors to the bridge according to Snow. The resistance was not light, and she was grateful for the apparent lack of unity amongst the different Houses holed up here on the Ketch.

Lowering her rifle she let out a breath she wasn't aware that she was holding and she chose that time to lean against a nearby bulkhead. Making sure to kick a nearby Dregg away from her chosen spot. She was still exhausted, and by the way Snow was seated against the same bulkhead she assumed the same. All this fighting was taking it's toll on the pair. Their third member was silently staring at the door with his rifle at the ready. Did the Fallen never sleep or some shit? It was amazing when they had dropped from the Servitor hatch on the Fallen and Awoken that were in the passageway. They had cut through them fairly quickly and had moved on to the bridge guards.

By the Queen she hated sprinting, and that was a long ass sprint they just did to get here.

"Snow?" Jo asked quietly, the Warlock only nodded silently in acknowledged her. "This plan fucking blows." Her accusation was rather harsh, and the man stiffened slightly. "But I gotta say, this was hella fun." His head bobbed again in acknowledgement. He really must have been winded to not be speaking.

"Now let's see how the other team is doing." She muttered as she brought out her Ghost. "Patch me through." The Ghost drifted to one side before the link was made and she could hear what appeared to be another firefight going on. Lot's of cursing too. "Hey Raz, you hear me?" She slightly yelled into the channel.

"Mother fu- Ooof!" Raz was violently cut off by what sounded like him rushing into a brick wall. She even could hear the armor cracking under the strike. She heard him groan before deigning her with a response. "You rang?" His voice was deep and monotonous. She obviously didn't get his reference and she knew that he would get on her case about it later.

She heard more struggling as Raz had apparently regained his bearings and was fighting back. Jo gave Snow a look and the man only shrugged as he checked over his rifle. His ammo count was low, but hopefully things were coming to an end. She watched as he reached for his ghost and listened to it giving off a message. The man's shoulders sagged and he visibly deflated.

"You know what Raz, I'll call you back." She cut off the line before the Human could retort. Turning her attention towards her partner here she slowly pushed off where she was resting and made her way towards the Warlock. "What's got you so bummed?"

"The ship has been boarded, again." Snow dragged out between what she guessed was gritted teeth.

"Alright, well we have seen a few Awoken marines, so I knew that." She jutted out her hip and rested on hand on it clearly telling the Warlock this wasn't news to her.

"By other Guardians."

"…"

"…"

"Well fuck."

.

Raz had managed to duck under Corde's strike and return with his own elbow to the Awoken Titan's ribs. The resounding crack that came with it forced the two Titans apart to regain their composure. Raz was flexing his arm and feeling out the damage the last blow had caused while Corde was running a hand over the compromised plate armor.

"Damn Raz." Corde commented as he settled down into his fighting stance once more. "How was the Human saying? You hit like a freighted train?" He didn't wait for Raz to prepare for the attack and lunged at the Human.

"It's hit like a freight train." Raz grunted out as he blocked the next punch and diverted it to the side, only to get Corde's other fist smashing into the side of his head. "Jesus!" He cried out as he recoiled from the strike. His shields taking the majority of the hit. He could still feel the overall kinetic force behind it, however.

Corde and Raz continued to trade blows, the two veritable mountains of armor and muscle slowly whittling one another down. Corde caged his head in his arms to counter a series of jabs Raz sent flying towards the head. The blows rattled off the arm guards until the strikes turned into vicious body blows. It was during this hail of rib shots that Raz seemed to hesitate, some form of distraction.

"Raz!" Twinkles chimed in his ear. "I'm patching in Jo now!"

"Hey Raz, you hear me?" The voice of Jo cut in on his internal monologue. Now was not in a really good mood to be taking calls, especially from Jo at this time.

"What? No don't do that you dumb mother fu- Ooof!" The change in Raz's attention allowed Corde to wind up a strike by clasping his hands together and viciously bring them crashing down on the Human's head. Raz's head went soaring towards the floor but never made it as Corde rushed his knee up and the resounding blow sent the man reeling as he backpedalled a few steps. When he caught himself on what appeared to be a maintenance terminal he spoke again into the open link. "You rang?" He deepened his voice and dragged out the words. He felt like he did a rather believable Lurch impression. He loved that show, it was a classic.

Raz reminded himself that he couldn't afford to get distracted by anything and at the last moment managed to bring his hands out in front of him to slow down the speeding tackle that was Corde. The console he had been resting on smashed under their combined bulk and the two fell to the floor in an ungraceful tangle of limbs and curses. Each getting a well placed shot on one another every few swings.

"You know what Raz, I'll call you back." Jo's voice echoed in the confines of his helmet.

"You seriously had to call at a time like this?" Raz nearly shouted as he drove his knee into Corde's less armored side. He was grateful for the grunt of pain that he elicited from the Awoken, but it was short lived as the loud reports of gunfire seemed to start up around them again.

The gunfire drew his attention away long enough for Corde to regain his footing and tackle his one time friend. Forcing the pair to the metal plating of some round structure. The console let off a series of beeps and warnings in some language. But Raz was too busy trying to untangle himself from Corde to pay attention. Those shots had come from where he had last seen Archivia and that angry Warlock. He had to finish this soon.

Anger started to rise, and Raz could feel his Arc energy coursing through his body, Corde seemed to notice this too since his body began to have a slight purple sheen to it. They weren't playing around anymore, and now they were using their full abilities. The energy ended in Raz's hands and he tried to use it, but since Corde had already tackled him he was easily able to pin the Human's hands to the deck.

"I know how devastating this can be, Raz! I'm not going to let you hit me with these fists!" Corde shouted as the two continued to struggle. The purple sheen collected down into Corde's hands and the Human could feel like some sort of barrier was being placed between the two. Corde was draining him on contact and boosting his shield capabilities, he needed a counter.

Forgoing a response with a simple grunt Raz had an idea. It was crazy, but it could work. Trying to gain control of his frustration at being mounted by Corde, the Human started to move his energy charge. The Arc bolts moved from his struggling hands to up his arms. Finally moving up his neck and into his helmet, now that Raz was doing this did he realize how much this actually hurt. His body wasn't used to the placement and it was trying to reject the energy collecting there.

"What the- No you wouldn't do-!" Corde never finished his statement as Raz flung his head forward into the Awoken's. Their helmets collided and Corde screeched in pain as the overcharge of energy moved through his body.

Corde removed himself from Raz and stumbled a few feet before his body evaporated from the energy it could not contain. Raz exhaled slowly as his helmet made contact with the deck again. His eyes idly caught Corde's Ghost popping up to resurrect him in a moment. That still gave the Human time to go help his companion. With a groan he forced himself up and picked up his sidearm from the deck before jogging off to go help Archivia.

.

After Raz and Corde had started their little duel which later degraded to a fistfight and cursing Archivia had been dealing with the other Warlock. The man was rather talented, she would admit, never to the other man and certainly never to Jo. But she had held her own so far, and that was before the other Guardians started showing up.

It had been simply pop from cover and shoot a few shots, back into cover and occasionally throw a ball of Void at the other guy. He was of the same class of her, so their Void abilities seemed to nullify each other, so their duel was going nowhere fast.

But then the other Guardians mixed things up by shooting at the both of them. Archivia had immediately ducked and stopped all hostilities, refocusing her attention on trying to shut down the reactors. The Fallen so far have had good success in keeping her and her Ghost out of these systems, but the backdoors she had left herself earlier helped slightly.

As she furiously typed away at a small pad that her Ghost provided her she noticed that the gunfire seemed to have stopped. She decided against all forms of self preservation to have a look, and was nearly shot for it. The trio of Hunters who had breached the room had spread out and the moment she peeked the nearest one took a pot shot at her. The shot was wide, but it forced her back into cover. She checked over her scout rifle to make sure it was loaded and ready to fight. She really didn't want to shoot a good Guardian for doing his job, but if it came down to it she would.

She gripped her rifle and popped from cover, only to see Raz tackling the Hunter and punch the surprised Guardian in the head. The poor man's head rebounded off the deck and he went limp, most likely unconscious from the brute head trauma he just received. Raz looked up from his handiwork at Archivia before nodding and heading off to where the Warlock was currently winning a fistfight with the Hunter who went after him.

Archivia decided now would be a great time to finish her work but decided to check where the other Hunter had vanished to. Her eyes searched the room from her point and through some piping she noticed the other Hunter with a small container. After a moment she spotted a Ghost inside through a small porthole. They had secured Corde, well that was partially good news. But that also meant they would have more people to come after her and Raz.

.

Raz sped past another Hunter, not even touching him as he leapt for the Warlock. His Arc infused fist grazing past the Warlock and into one of the many contraptions in the room. The energy was quickly dissipated by the machine and absorbed. Growling, the Titan swung his arm around wide and missed the Warlock again. The man was quick, dodging two Guardian's fists and feet. But he was tiring, Raz could see it.

Calrus shifted his attention between the Hunter and the Titan. This was getting bad and quick, Corde had obviously been dealt with since the Human was here. He had no idea what the state of the bridge was or the rest of the ship in general. He had only a few options left. He preferred working from the shadows anyways. He snorted as he drew out his Ghost with the full intention of escaping.

"No! You are under arrest!" The Hunter shouted as he leapt for Calrus.

The Hunter wasn't nearly fast enough, and Calrus was able to sidestep and move his Ghost out of the way. This is where he suddenly remembered the Titan behind him. Everything seemed to slow down as his head swiveled to watch the Titan almost casually reach out with one hand close it around his Ghost. Now normally that wouldn't concern him because he could still get away even if the Ghost was being held.

No.

What worried him was the fact that the Human's closing hand was charged with Arc energy. His Ghost never stood a chance as the volatile Light was forced through the machine. White noise erupted on all the channels and all the Guardian's reached for their helmets in pain. The noise picked up and was close to deafening, but it wasn't just the white noise or the pained yells of the gathered Guardians. No, the loudest sound going over the frequencies was the howl of the Titan who had absorbed the Ghost.

Raz had dropped to his knees and was gripping his cracked helmet tightly. His body mirrored the pain in his voice, he was racked with spasms and twitching violently as he continued broadcasting. From her place Archivia could see his helmet starting to crack and in a few places on his visor shatter completely. But instead of seeing his face, pure light erupted from the breach in his helmet.

Archivia and the other Guardians continued to watch as Raz dropped to his hands. His voice never wavering nor dropping. The amount of Light he had absorbed was constantly repairing his vocal chords, giving him the ability to scream in unending pain. He slowly reached out a hand towards the Hunter, a pleading hand which the Hunter took a hesitant hand to accept. But stopped short when a burst of Arc energy flew from his fingertips and struck around him.

"Son of a bitch!" Travis shouted and scooted back quickly. He didn't want to abandon the Titan, but the man was clearly destabilized with all the Light he had taken from the Ghost. In hind sight he should have seen it coming, he was lucky it didn't hit him this time.

The Arc energy was building and discharging from Raz into everything around him, not only that but his Void abilities which were minimal before were now exploding out of control. Wards were forming around him and vanishing almost as fast as they were formed, his armor was now coated in the ethereal purple glow. Raz was trying to burn off the Light as fast as he could. But from his screaming it sounded like it was still going on. That was when he started to actually say something.

"Make it stop! Make it stop! My head! Make! It! Stop! Make it go away!" He continued to scream about making it stop and that was when Archivia saw the final element of a Guardian's power. Solar.

Flaming energy formed around Raz as a blanket and flew off in waves, it dispersed before reaching any of the others, but such a manifestation on an ability that Raz had less affinity for was amazing. Archivia would have called this a great moment in hers and Raz's life if the man didn't appear to be dying in front of her. Any and all thoughts were interrupted as Raz surged to his feet and lurched to the side suddenly. His hands in front of him, grasping at the air until he reached a series of tubes.

"Get back here!" A Hunter yelled and drew all their attention towards the Warlock who had taken that chance to flee. Calrus did knock over the one who held Corde's Ghost, the man ended up dropping the case and jostling the Ghost slightly. "Shit!" The Hunter shouted as he looked between the Ghost and the Warlock before ultimately giving chase to the Warlock.

"Wait!" Archivia called out to the Titan, or to Travis, they were still close to each other. "Don't let him touch those! That leads to the main reactor! He plans on dumping his energy into it! That will cause a meltdown!"

Travis looked from the Warlock to the Titan and drew his sidearm and fired. The rounds would have gone right through the back of the Titan's skull, but they just bounced off his shields not even phasing the massive man. Firing a few more rounds he was stopped this time by a Ward that the Titan had called out and had him protected from the bullets. Another benefit is that it contained the electrical storm that was Raz for now.

Travis knew he could have tried harder, could have entered the Ward, even if it had killed him. But he didn't really care about a Fallen Ketch, no, he was here on orders and he had seen what was going on. He watched as Raz grasped the tubes and the energy started to leave him and was quickly drawn into the ship around them all. Immediately shorting out several lights and panels in explosions of sparks.

"We have to get out of here! Now!" Travis ordered as he watched the other Hunter nod and relay the orders to the other members of their boarding party. He noticed Archivia activating her comm link and chatting with someone quietly, he wouldn't press for now though. He did motion towards her for the other Hunter to grab her and keep her from escaping if she tried to.

.

"Are you sure we should be going here when we know other Guardians are here to hunt you down?" Watcher asked Jo and Snow as they were planting explosives on the door. He had told them earlier that the Kell would open the door for them if they knocked. The Fallen leader was as prideful as they came. He watched as Jo waved his question off.

"We are doing them a favor by making sure this ass-hat dies." That was a new one, he would definitely need to study the English language more. Especially the slang. "So this is what we call a Razzle-Dazzle." Jo explained as she pointed to the series of explosive charges stuck to the door.

"You made that up didn't you?" Snow asked skeptically. "Do I even want to know why you named it after your other two thirds?" Jo went to answer but stopped quickly.

"You just made a joke! Holy shit! Peepin' Tom," She pointed at Watcher, "mark this day down! Snow made a joke!" The House-less Vandal and the Warlock exchanged a look before both shrugged. "I gotta say Snow, I must be rubbing off on you."

"Hardly."

"Oh don't get all cold on me now." She watched him plant a hand on his visor in annoyance. "Anyways ladies, I got this idea while watching Raz demolish a Walker tank and the unit around it with this same method."

"Your large Human mate attached an exuberant amount of explosives to a tank? How did he get that close and avoid detection?" Watcher was thoroughly intrigued as he backed up with the other two away from the explosive laden door.

"You see, Raz is Pre-Collapse, he learned something then about how to use your surroundings and camouflage. Things that most Guardians don't use anymore with all our armor colors." Watcher nodded his head in understanding. The Titan was smarter than he had given credit for, this would make for interesting conversation with Grutek and the Thunder later. "Now hold onto your hats, we're going to knock now."

Snow and Watcher ducked behind a burnt out barricade and watched as the all the blinking lights turned to a solid green before exploding in a bluish fireball. They had prepared themselves and turned on their audio dampeners beforehand and were lucky. The Fallen on the bridge weren't so lucky, since the ones closest to the door were instantly almost vaporized from the heat alone. The concussive force liquefied the insides of a few more and the rest clutched at their heads trying to dampen the high pitched whine they were all now hearing.

"Fuck yeah!" Jo shouted as she leapt over her cover and charged into the bridge. Snow followed in after her and Watcher hesitated to provide overwatch as he had been doing before.

The bridge was utter chaos as the few that had maintained any semblance of discipline were targeted first by Watcher and his wire rifle. The newer heat sink that Priest Durnisk had installed worked wonderfully in forcing many of his targets to keep their heads down. This allowed for the two Guardians to close in on the Fallen that were forced into cover and gun them down.

"We should really hurry Jo! I give the other Guardians five minutes before catching up to us!" Snow called to the Titan as he dived into cover. The Captain he had squared off against giving chase.

"Why so soon! We had to fight through halls of- Oh." Jo realized what the Warlock meant when they would get their quickly. They had literally carved a path for the new borders. "Well we just have to kill the Kell and get the nav data! So lets find that asshole!"

"That won't be so easy, Joanna." A rather quiet voice spoke suddenly from her Jo's side.

"By the Queen! You scared the shit outta me… Isral is that you?" Jo had jumped back and had hesitated when she saw the Awoken woman who was not shooting at her for a change. She didn't lower her auto rifle in the slightest. "What in the Hell are you all doing here? I saw a few of the others from our old unit, but what? Why?"

"I'd go into detail and tell you, Joanna, but I plan on killing you. So why monologue to my old protégé?" The woman shrugged before drawing her hand cannon. "I just wanted to let you know who was going to be killing you, you know how I am with shooting people in the back."

Jo raised her rifle the rest of the way and fired, only to watch the rounds pass harmlessly through Isral. A single hand cannon shot rang out and Jo had just enough time to shift to the side and feel the round bounce off of her shoulder.

"Fuck! I should have seen that coming! You never fight fair you stupid bitch!"

"By the way, Joanna, I go by Alias now, not Isral."Alias snarled at Jo but the smaller woman kept silent as she leaped at her old mentor and tackled the other Awoken. Weapons skittered to the side as the two women fought on the deck plates. Both women were internally grateful that neither of their Titan counterparts were there, or they would never hear the end of it.

Snow didn't hear much of the exchange as he had gotten away from the Captain only to land in front of the Kell. The same Kell who was laughing menacingly at the Warlock while he readied his sword. Snow took this chance to lob a grenade and start scooting away from the massive Fallen. The Kell roared in pain as the grenade hit him in the chest before detonating. His pain increased as the shots of a wire rifle slammed into the exposed bits on his chest armor.

"You dare defy me!" The Kell roared in English. He swiped at Snow, forcing the Warlock to dive behind a console and allowing the Kell to see his other attacker. "You! I had a feeling my subordinates were useless. But no matter. I get to kill you myself." The Kell had switched his languages and charged at Watcher.

The smaller Fallen dived forward and drew a small shock dagger, plunging it into the side of the Kell's leg as he slid between them. The Kell roared again as he swiped his lower arm around and backhanded the Vandal across the room and into a gaggle of Dreggs trying to maintain control of the ship. They roared defiantly at their new addition and drew their weapons only to be cut down quickly.

Snow weaved through the destroyed pieces of equipment and fired several clips of pinpoint shots at the Kell who was busy trying to cover himself and close the distance between him and the Guardian. When he felt like he had gotten close enough he swung his sword at the Human and Snow didn't dodge fast enough as he felt the energy course through his arms and the blade cut into him. Yelling in pain he took a few steps back before collapsing on the deck.

The Kell laughed loudly as he closed in for the kill on the Guardian. Claiming it would be another trophy for his wall. What he didn't expect was the exile from his House to leap on his back and plunge the shock dagger into his shoulder, eliciting a surprised and pained shout as he let go of his weapon to grab the smaller Fallen. The movements were easily read by Watcher as he quickly let go of his shock blade and dropped to the floor. Grabbing a pistol he fired a few rounds into the Kell's leg and quickly started backing off.

Snow was curious as to why the Vandal who clearly had the advantage was now retreating from the Kell. The Kell obviously didn't see it the same way, blinded by rage and pain. But it soon became clear as the sound of a high caliber rifle cut through the few struggling warriors left on the bridge. The round glanced off the Kell's helmet and he ducked and swiveled to the side accordingly to his self preservation instincts.

The Kell's and Snow's heads whipped to the side to see a Hunter walking calmly with his sniper rifle in hands. Watcher had obviously seen the other Guardian enter the bridge and made himself scarce for obvious reasons. Snow didn't have any problems with that, now that the other Guardians were here he could complete his objective and gather what intel he could from the bridge.

Jo was still wrestling with Alias when the form of the other Awoken was engulfed in what looked like Void energy. Effectively stopping any and all movements she would have used against the Titan. She wasn't even able to curse properly as all sounds had been muffled through the barrier. Jo looked over to the Warlock who had projected the barrier to snag Alias and noticed the same old tattered robes from Sage-22 or Sushi. The Warlock nodded to her as he held a massive hand cannon loosely in one hand while the other was maintaining his hold on Alias.

"Dear God, Jo, get it together." The voice of the Hunter called over to the Titan who was picking herself up. "It seems in our time apart you have been getting soft if you're loosing to this one."

"Oh shut up you overclocked toaster." Jo snapped back and managed to keep the humor out of her tone, the voice she had heard was so gratingly familiar, but she was still glad to have him here.

"Ever so feisty, aren't you, little glow stick?" Entity's comeback was quick as he fired another round at the Kell who raised his arms to deflect the next round that would have gone through his neck. "But unfortunately we can't stay long. We have to haul you guys back to the Tower to answer some questions."

The Kell had been slowly backing away and reaching for his weapon when a sudden burst of static and a screech filled his helmet and was being broadcasted on all the speakers. The remaining crew members at their work stations and the Guardians all reached for their helmets in pain. The only exceptions were Alias who was immobilized and Sushi who remained focused enough to dampen the audio and hold the barrier at the same time.

This static and noise seemed to drag on before Jo noticed that she could hear a voice in it all. It sounded familiar, and it was repeating itself. Crying to make something stop, but the pitch was too high for it to really be her partner. She could feel it was though and even with her making noise into the channel it did nothing. Raz was simply overwhelming all the channels. It didn't help that when he started to quiet down the lights and terminals all over the bridge started to explode in showers of sparks.

In all this pain the Kell dropped to his knees and his upper arms held onto the sides of his helmet and his eyes squeezed shut in pain. Why wouldn't it stop? He roared defiantly as he felt something press into his neck. Prying one eye open he spotted the exile standing before him with a shock sword. The bridge exploding all around the remaining survivors. He had no knowledge of what was going on, but he was more focused on the exile before him. The other's intent was clear, and he strangely felt not only rage, but peace. He had been bested, but it soured his mood to know who had bested him and at least the exile would die with him on his dying ship.

Watcher didn't say anything as he rammed the blade through the underside of the Kell's head and through the top of his skull. The shock blade pierced the inside of armor plating easily and jutted a good few inches above the Fallen's head. The Kell fell limply to the side, letting out a guttural groan the entire time. Watcher snorted as he turned to see the Guardian's starting to recover from the radio burst. He needed to go and it had to be soon, if the exploding bridge was any other indicator.

"We need to leave." Snow suddenly appeared at Watcher's side. "I can't leave with them, so you and I need to rendezvous with the Thunder and leave. I'll give Archivia the data I promised her later, but the Thunder need this too." Watcher nodded before grabbing the Warlock's arm before he could call his Ghost.

"Come with us, I will be traveling to the Thunder, but join me at least. Friend." The word felt strange, he only considered Grutek a friend and that was as far as any other living being had gotten with him since his exile. He didn't know much about the Guardian, but he felt that he could trust him.

Snow took a moment to look at the other Guardians who were now rounding up Jo and Alias. Looking back at the hand that gripped him he gave a curt nod. Summoning his Ghost he transmatted them both to his Jumpship so they could warn the Thunder and make their escape. It didn't take long for the raiders to board their Skiff and depart from the Ketch and into space.

"C'mon Jo, we have to get you out of here." Entity shouted as he grabbed at her. She was desperately trying to escape his grip and rush back into the ship. "The ship has obviously been set to scuttle! The others can grab Raz and Archivia, we have to leave, now!" With a good final tug on her he managed to get his Ghost to transmat the both of them to his jumpship, knowing Sushi and the other Hunter with them would be in their own at any minute now.

.

The Hunter with Corde's Ghost had transmatted back to his ship after he reported that the Warlock had gotten away. The other one had grabbed the Warlock, Archivia and had left with her. Now he was alone here with a Titan who was most likely falling apart at a molecular level. The man was leaking pure Light from his helmet for Christ's sake, and it was coming out like a jet.

Raz had attempted to dump his extra energy into the ship and rid himself of it, but the Ghost held a surprising amount. That must be because they were shards of the Traveler, that was unfortunate. Travis could tell that this Titan was trying to do good, and even had to go against the orders of the Speaker and Vanguard. But destroying a Ghost? That was too much, he really was a criminal now.

Travis shook his head, he didn't have too much time to think about that since the ship was falling apart as fast if not faster than the Titan. He had to think of something to stop the flow of this Titan's energy. A flicker of Void energy around Raz caught his attention and gave him an idea. Raz had stopped screaming and was now merely grunting in pain, maybe he could hear him speak now.

"Raz, I need you to make the most powerful Ward you can. It's the only way you can survive this." He was straight up lying through his teeth, it was only a theory. But the affirmative nod he received was more than enough to know the Titan would try to make an indestructible barrier.

Travis didn't wait for anything else before bailing himself out of the Ketch. Settling into his jumpship he boosted away and opened the all channels frequency.

"This is a Guardian Hunter to all ships! The Ketch is overloading and about to explode! Get as much distance from the ship as you can! I repeat, get away from the Ketch!" He noticed the immediate flow of traffic as ships turned and fled from the Ketch. They didn't have much time until-

The Ketch erupted into a ball of fire mixed with Arc energy. The blast radius annihilated several ships that hadn't fled soon enough and damaged countless more. Travis was shaken around the flight station as he tried to gain control of his craft. When he finally did, he dared a peek at where the Ketch had been. There was a pocket in the asteroids that made up the edge of the Reef and smoke that was quickly dispersing in the void of space. Inside it all, he spotted a small purple bubble.

**Post A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this rather big milestone in my story! Seeing as the next one is going to be my last one of this story. Who knows, I might write a sequel if I feel motivated enough. This one only took me about a year to write eleven chapters! Well remember Guardians! Keep on keepin' on!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Well here it is! The end is nigh! I present to you the final chapter of His Own Path. I hope the ride was worth it and I got it done in a crunch before I got swamped by work so I can go an vacation in a few days. That is when I'll never touch this computer sadly. But with that motivation I got this all banged out for you! Enjoy!**

**CH. 12- The Day the World Died**

Dust and debris floated aimlessly amongst the wreckage of the Ketch of the House of Thieves and any other ship that could not escape in time. It was eerie to the Guardians and Awoken that had survived the blast to see an area so desolate now.

The two sides had called a truce to sift through the pieces and maybe find some form of survivors, the hopes weren't high for most. Entity had to put up with a worried Titan however, and he wouldn't say anything negative about it to his friend. He knew loss, and he didn't want to be the one to dash the hopes of Jo who was frantically searching the debris for anything left of Raz.

It hadn't taken long for her to gain access to the flight station, a few well placed punches had convinced him that a ruptured hull was not worth keeping her locked in the cargo bay. He didn't really feel like searching the area for the tiny Titan if she punched a hole through the wrong bulkhead. So she was up here with him and her face was planted firmly against the viewscreens trying to spot the other Titan of her fireteam.

As the dust was dissipating into the void of space the shoulders on the Awoken started to sag more and more as she couldn't spot anything with her eyes. Entity wanted to scoff at how frail her faith was, he knew Raz was made of some pretty sturdy stuff. It was possible for a Titan to survive, but his earlier thoughts returned and he remained silent as time passed. He almost jumped out of his seat when the radios sparked to life.

"Lelantos team, Lelantos one. I have a fix on the last Titan of Orion." The voice of the Hunter in charge, Travis, came in over the radios. "Sending coordinates and we will surround him and retrieve. The Awoken are searching for him too, and I don't want to start a fight with them right now. So let's move people."

There was a chorus of confirmations and multiple jumpships leapt into action and accelerated rapidly to secure their target. Inside Entity's ship there was a fleshy smack followed by a yelp as Jo had brought her face back to the viewscreen in search of Raz. Now knowing the general direction in which she should be looking for him she had changed the side she had been perched on.

"C'mon! We have to get to him first and secure him!" She nearly shouted at the Exo that had "captured" her. "Who knows what has happened to him! He could be-!"

"Calm down, Jo!" Entity snapped at the Titan. She physically recoiled from his reproach, but she nodded and took a deep breath trying to get her head on straight. Entity was helping her as much as he could, and he couldn't do more if she kept harassing him more than normal. "We won't get there first, but I'll see if we can secure him for you. Because, you know, accidents happen."

Jo could hear the sly tone in his voice, their was a procedure somewhere about securing volatile Guardians, and Entity was about to abuse that protocol for her. Realizing this, she took a step back from the viewscreen and nodded at Entity. A small smile danced it's way across her face as she looked back out to see their target.

Entity looked back over the target area and his enhanced optics picked up the garish coloring of the Human's armor. The armor was dented and scorched in such entirety that the bright colors were now just splotches on what should have been gray and black armor. That was also when he noticed that the there was something odd with the Titan's helmet, two glowing pin pricks of light that he almost thought were stars behind him. But he knew his eyes weren't malfunctioning, that looked like honest to God Light emitting from what appeared to be cracks in the man's helmet. Other than that, the man was limp and drifting aimlessly in space.

"Jo, get yourself in the cargo bay. It looks like he is out cold, and we don't want him getting hurt when he gets pulled in." Entity commanded as he pressed a few keys on a side console. The woman nodded slowly before leaving the flight station and sealing the door behind her. Entity called out his Ghost in preparation for taking in the Human.

"We are about to break some rules, aren't we?"

"Maliciously." Entity replied with a chuckle as he watched the Ghost go to work and start transmatting Raz into the ship.

Luckily it wasn't a long process, and it was worth the earful he was getting from Travis. Looking at the small display showing the cargo bay he watched as Jo had taken off the man's helmet and was cradling his limp form while rocking him back and forth. For all Entity knew the man was dead, burned out from excessive Light use, but he decided to hold out hope for Jo's sake.

"I'm fully aware of what I was 'up to' Travis." Entity deigned it time to respond to his temporary leader. "But I figured if my ship could hold one Titan, why not an unconscious one too? Plus, look at these guys." He transmitted a small portion of video to his leader before cutting the feed from the other Hunter.

"Fine, just be sure that if he starts to destabilize again you should be prepared." Travis cut the link before turning his ship towards jumping back to the Tower. All of the others following suit. Entity had hesitated as he looked at the video again.

"It would be so easy." He mumbled before flicking off the live feed and jumping after his fellow Guardians.

.

"We understand your course of action, Prince Sov." Commander Zavala's voice rang through the hall as he and several others spoke to the Awoken delegation. "But they were brought here to stand trial in our territory."

"I guess that means you have to wait your turn, doesn't it?" Cayde-6's voice followed after the leader of the Titans. "And with what is probably going to happen to those three… Well you might not get a chance in a really long time."

"This is outrageous! Your Guardians trespassed and-!"

"I apologize, Prince Sov, but please wait until the trial to make your claims. It will be wasted here." The ever calm of Ikora Rey interrupted the prince from his tirade.

"It's not like you have to wait long, your highness." The deep voice of the Titan Raz pulled all their attention to the man who wore only his black undersuit and had a pair of armed Titan's flanking him. Behind him were Corde, Jo and Archivia who were similarly dressed and guarded.

"What is this? This man should be in chains! He is a dangerous criminal who killed my people not only on that Ketch but with it too!" The Prince strode up towards the much taller Human and put a finger in the man's face. "If it were up to me I'd have you locked in the Prison of Elders with the Cabal! You wouldn't last a day!"

Raz went cross-eyed from the finger nearly going up his nose and let his eyes refocus on the Vanguard behind the prince. With only a somewhat apologetic look that the prince caught on too late as a massive fist slammed into the Awoken's face. There was a resounding crack followed by a snarl as the prince stayed far more composed than Raz gave him credit for.

Raz was grabbed by the two Titan's and restrained as the prince was steadied by his own guards, whom by this point had drawn their side arms but did not raise them. They were smarter too, not getting riled up to start a shoot-out between at least eight heavily armed Guardians escorting prisoners. Raz could feel one of the Titan's shaking in laughter and his eyes caught Commander Zavala putting his face in his hands while Cayde had doubled over by the wall trying to hold in his laughter.

"You filthy mongrel!" The prince snapped as he held his jaw gingerly. "You will pay for striking me!" He visibly recoiled when Raz made to close in on him. But the little ordeal was cut short when Commander Zavala's voice barked out at them loudly.

"Titan Raz! Compose yourself! You are still a Titan and you will act accordingly!" Zavala's tone was stern and the Human along with all the other Titan's snapped to attention out of habit more than anything. "Now we are going to head down to the court room and we are going to be civil about it. Understood?" There was a curt nod from Raz, and all the other Titan's nodded as well causing Cayde to start wheezing as he watched the whole thing unfold.

"Now to be sure no other mishaps occur, Raz, you will be wearing these now." Ikora nodded to two Warlocks who were carrying what appeared to be two solid metal tubes held together by the thickest metal bar they could attach to it. "These are specialized manacles for Titans. Please don't resist, Raz."

Nodding, Raz put his arms behind him while the Warlocks bound him in the metal frame. The tubes covered his forearms completely and an oddly placed bar forced him to grab onto it or it would dig into his palm and would cause pain in his wrist. He felt it lock down on him and the weight tug at him as the Warlocks let go.

The Awoken prince nodded more approvingly as he rubbed his sore jaw and turned with a huff. The Vanguard close behind him gave the prisoners one more sympathetic look. They knew that from the reports that this was all just a show, but someone was going to get punished for this show's sake.

Raz started forward but felt another tug on his arms, and they seemed to cool down significantly rather quickly. His head snapped to the side so he could look over his shoulder and spotted the Warlocks were using their Void powers to encase Raz's arms in sleeves, keeping him from using his abilities, or so they thought. He wouldn't tell them of his little experiment with his head.

"Raz…" The quiet voice of Jo came from behind them as they started marching towards the end of the hall. "Please… Be tactful, we don't want to get in more trouble than we already are."

"Don't worry, Jo, I'll do what I can." Raz gave her a small grin and the woman blushed furiously before grumbling to herself.

.

The room they had been led to was massive, and was filling quickly. They were definitely here to put on a show for the Guardians and the Awoken most likely. Raz was surprised by the turnout really, he didn't think this many Guardians would care about a trial. What he wasn't aware of was that many of them would like to see the team that caused the whole lockdown on the Tower. The lockdown had yet to be called off anyways, so they had nothing else to do.

Raz's eyes cast around to the gathering Guardians and he noted a few that seemed to draw his eyes, a small Exo woman with an Exo male were leaning against a rail that was for the second floor. A young Human Hunter was holding his helmet at his side as he was chatting calmly with a massive Exo Titan. Raz was jerked from his analysis as the Warlocks that had him bound pulled him away from the others of his group. He watched as Jo was separated from Archivia and Corde was isolated from them as well. It struck him as curious as the other Awoken, Alias was nowhere to be seen. The prince must have gotten custody of her, oh well.

"Please remain standing for the Speaker and the Vanguard!" A voice called out and everyone had fallen silent. Standing in various forms of attention. Many of them bowed their heads towards the Speaker as he entered and nodded to them in return.

As the Speaker passed the different rows of people he would seek out and pause by the accused and share a word or two with them. Possibly in hopes to console them, but as he approached Raz the Human did not even look at the Speaker of the Traveler.

"Titan Raz, I know we haven't really had the chance to speak beforehand. But I hope that this will not hinder us in getting acquainted." The soft voice of the Speaker pierced through the slight murmurs of the gathered warriors of Light.

Much to the surprise of everyone in the room, and the amusement of some. Raz still did not look at the man, or even seem to acknowledge that he had been spoken to. One of the escorting Titan's nudged Raz, who turned to look at the man curiously. Gaining no other response the Titan elbowed the Human who only grunted before the Speaker stopped any other forms of violence.

"That is fine, do not worry. He seems to be at an odd time, we will allow him to act in this manner. We only hope he regains his senses before we start." The Speaker gave another long look at the Titan before moving on to Corde and finally to his place at the front of the Judge's stand.

"Thank you all for gathering here today, everyone. We would like to begin this court session by calling the Titan Corde to the stand." He looked to the Vanguard over his shoulder and Commander Zavala made a motion for the Awoken to be brought before him.

The proceedings to the court were rather simple and unfortunately due to evidence was rather clear cut in judgments. Corde was almost immediately sentenced to several hundred years in a Void prison cell. The Awoken paled at that judgment and looked at Raz one last time before he was carted off.

Raz could only feel sorry for his friend, to spend that amount of time in a sleepless stasis, would drive anyone insane. He feared what his judgement would be when it was his turn, which was unfortunately next. They had been wise to keep all of them separated during the trial, but as Raz stood up and made his way towards the stand. He just now realized how packed the room was, and how small he really felt compared to everyone else.

The room was an ampitheater that circled around the stand and the judges were the Vanguard and the Speaker with the jury behind them. From Jo's perspective she caught Raz staring briefly at the Traveler as he strode to his spot before the Vanguard and the Speaker. With a clearing of a throat Raz turned to face his judges. His eyes resting on each of the Vanguard and he nodded to each one in turn before looking again at the Awoken prince and giving him a bare nod. The prince sneered at the Titan in return.

"Prick." Raz mumbled as he returned his gaze to the Vanguard.

"Titan Raz. You are being tried with treason, murder and destruction of a Ghost." Ikora's voice, the voice of reason and serenity apparently, was the first to speak. "How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

"Now you- what?" Ikora's calm was shattered as she had prepared a counter argument to him trying to claim innocence. "Do you know what you claimed to be pleading for?" She asked him incredulously.

"Aye, that I do ma'am." Raz paused to take in a breath before beginning again. "I killed several Awoken soldiers as well as fought off other Guardians. Hid myself from the Tower and the Vanguard to complete my mission. Destroyed a Ghost, a shard of the Traveler and annihilated a Ketch which killed more Awoken pilots and boarding marines." The room was silent for a moment before they heard the warbled tone of a female Exo.

"Holy fuck!" She was quickly silenced and the silence resumed before Commander Zavala spoke up.

"Yes, those are the actions that have been reported to us. But according to the reports your team was also a part of this. Assisting you with boarding the Ketch, and killing other Awoken soldiers."

"There is no validity to that statement, sir. The destruction of the Ketch was from me, having overloaded the reactor and the only witness to them killing anyone is also a suspect in this crime. In which case, is notably absent from this trial." Raz cast another glance at the prince who rose to his feet.

"She is being held in our own trial, she will be dealt with accordingly." The prince spoke slowly, as if to an exceptionally dull child, and before the Vanguard could move on, Raz cut in.

"So you are sheltering her from our laws? When she clearly wanted to do the Tower, the Guardians and Humanity harm?" The Guardians could hear in Raz's tone that the man was egging on the Awoken, and some were seen passing money between each other.

"You dare question me on my standings? Guardian?" The prince moved closer with each step, his tone growing darker as he approached Raz. The Titan's guarding Raz only watched as the Awoken squared himself to the man. "Like I said before, you are lucky that you aren't under trial in the Reef. You would be kneeling and bowing the whole time, not even worthy of raising your head even a mere inch." The man's teeth gritted together as he leaned up closer to the Human.

The other Titans shared a look and shifted slightly to the side, they saw it, and the Crows guarding the prince noticed the change in Raz's demeanor as well. Before they could stop what was about to happen Raz's head whipped back and with added momentum snapped forward and into the nose of the Awoken prince. There was a sickening crunch heard followed by a howl of pain as the prince fell back and grabbed at his now shattered nose.

"I'm not good at the whole bowing thing, I apologize."

The Speaker was silent as he watched the whole thing unfold, the Vanguard was a mix of reactions. Ikora was wide eyed, Cayde had given Raz a thumbs up as he fought with a fit of laughter and Zavala had his head planted between his hands as the fingers massaged his temples. This day was getting more difficult.

"Prince Sov, if you would please excuse yourself from the trial, I believe you are agitating the defendant." The Speaker calmly demanded of the Awoken over the sounds of Guardian's snorting with laughter. "We will deal with him accordingly, and I assure you that we will have a detailed report sent to the Queen for you." The prince fumed briefly before he pulled himself to his feet and stormed out of the room with his Crows on his heel.

"Now," the Ikora started again when she had regained her composure, "we shall hear what you have to say about your companions."

"I believe that Titan Jo and Warlocks Archvia and Snow should be pardoned of all supposed claims against them." Raz stated calmly as the room settled down.

"Why would we do that?" Cayde-6 questioned from his position above.

"There is no solid evidence against them, only speculation."

"Right, well you know what? Let's call up some witnesses, we just want to point out a few things. These people we are calling up have submitted their reports. Mostly stating that what they saw up there in the Reef, was you and your team doing what is considered an A plus job for us. But we will ask the consensus of the two more outspoken ones if anything has changed." Cayde looked over into the crowd of Guardians and spoke again. "Could we have the Hunters Travis and Entity up at the stand?"

The men, were still fully armored when they strode up next to Raz, Travis gave him a once over and the two nodded in mutual understanding. Entity simply folded his arms as he waited for the Vanguard to speak again. He did incline his head slightly towards the fellow Titan next to him. The Vanguard exchanged looks and Cayde only shrugged in response to his fellow Guardians.

"So, Hunter Travis. Want to summarize what happened with you during your search and retrieval of fireteam Orion?"

"I was tasked with tracking down the missing team fireteam Orion. The heaviest resistance I received was by Titan Raz, and I had received aid from the Warlock Archivia in locating the Ketch and by extension the whole fireteam Orion. When I boarded the ship with my team Raz was with the Warlock who was transmitting her location to me. She did not resist while I witnessed Raz destroy the Ghost. I conclude my testimony with the fact that Raz and his team acted in a necessary fashion, I do not believe they had any intention of harming the Tower or the Allies of the Traveler."

With his report done with Vanguard nodded and Travis nodded his head before everyone's focus shifted to the Exo on the other side of Raz. Entity looked at the other Hunter before he decided to clear his throat.

"You've read my report, I assisted in dealing with the riot in the Tower and was then tasked to assist in the retrieval of Orion in the Reef. I encountered Titan Jo and Warlock Snow on the bridge fighting the Kell and the Awoken who was assisting the Eliksni in what intel gathered was going to be a joint coup against the Tower and the Reef. This team stopped them from inciting a war between the Tower and the Reef which would have left us vulnerable to the gathered Houses." Entity stopped and took a step back. The room had fallen deathly silent again as people digested what Entity had said.

"Thank you, you two may be seated." Ikora made a motion with her hand and the two nodded before silently returning to their spots. Her eyes zeroed in on Raz again as she took a deep breath. "Titan Raz, do you have anything else to add before we commit to judgment?"

To his credit, Raz looked very thoughtful as he mulled over what he was wanting to say. His eyes cast about at the numerous Guardians and settled on the small face of Jo who was off to the far side of the room.

"I want to repeat my earlier statement." His voice came in solid and confident, certainly not how he felt. He could feel his knees knocking together in anxiety. "I wish for Titan Jo and Warlocks Snow and Archivia to be pardoned of their crimes."

"I'm afraid we cannot just pardon them, there is justice that must be meted out for this." Ikora calmly replied, but her patience was running thin.

"I will take it then, add their judgment to mine, since the only clear evidence is against me, and since Warlock Snow is not anywhere to be found. He could be dead for all you know."

"The blast from an exploding reactor is rather powerful." Commander Zavala mused out loud. "The evidence of his survival is lost, and so is any convicting these two." He finished as he leaned forward to address the Human again. "You do realize that you will be going to the Void prisons as well." Raz nodded in understanding.

There was a near silent murmur from the crowd as the Vanguard deliberated with the Speaker and the jury. It didn't take long apparently as Ikora sat back in her seat with a huff and even the Awoken commander seemed miffed. Something didn't go as planned and the jury just looked pleased with itself as they all sat back down. Cayde had remained standing before he called everyone into silence for the announcement.

"For the act of Treason Titan Joanna, Warlock Archivia and Warlock Snow have been pardoned of these charges. For the acts of Treason, murder and destruction of Light Titan Raz is guilty of all charges. You will be sentenced to forty five years in the Void cells with no parole or bail. Your sentence will carry out immediately." Cayde finished as he slammed a gavel down to signify the end of the trial.

Guardians started filing out of the room, many staying where they were to watch as Jo and Archivia were rushing to where the guards were taking Raz towards a door on the side where he would gain access to the prison. Some felt bad for the team, but many just found that this was just another bit of entertainment in their long lives as warriors of the Light.

.

Raz had been nearly dragged through several spacious hallways and was now seated on a table as they removed the bands from his arms. He couldn't stop staring at the door that led to his cell. He had been given a rundown on the way over about what to expect.

The cells were rotary, so when he went in, he went in and was filed away for when he would be released in nearly fifty years and he would have no contact with the outside world. Since he was staying in a Void pocket he would not eat, sleep, drink or do anything really. He could pace in the small bubble that would be his home, but that would only work for some time. Unfortunately for him, most Guardians didn't last past five years. Their minds would break down and they would go insane. So most judgements never exceeded three just to be safe. They told him if he survived ten they would sneak in a visitor for him, that is if he wasn't crazy and a gibbering mess.

His speculations were cut short when the rest of his team came in followed by Commander Zavala. He quietly rose to his feet as Jo rushed over and pulled Raz into a hug, burying her head into his chest as she squeezed him. She let go briefly so Archivia could do the same but she didn't take too long. The three Awoken shared a look before Zavala gestured for the guards to leave.

"I think we can postpone the execution of this order by say… Five minutes? Who wants coffee?" Zavala led the guards out and Archivia shared a look with Jo before following and closing the door behind her. Raz remained staring at the door as the seconds ticked by.

"Jo I-" He never finished his lame apology or excuse, Jo never let him finish as she pushed him back to the table and onto it. It hurt his backside a bit with how hard he had made contact and before he could complain she had grabbed his head and forced it down and kissed him.

Raz's mind went blank when their lips made contact and he was non responsive at first. But after a moment of hesitation he kissed the tiny Titan back almost as passionately as she was kissing him. The two finally broke apart, breathless. Jo rested her head on Raz's chest before mumbling into it.

"You have no idea how long I waited to do that." She looked up at him and into his bright blue eyes. "I'm going to miss you, Raz. I just wish we had more time." She whispered and Raz looked like he was about to say something but decided against it and kissed her again. Not wanting to ruin a good thing, she pushed in on the kiss and they stayed that way until they heard the door open.

The two clearly ignored the door and only separated when they heard someone clear their throat. A blushing Archivia was seen with a cup in each hand and commander Zavala had a small grin on his face as well as if he was privy to some secret.

"Unfortunately, we have to do this now. So as a parting gift, Raz, drink up." Zavala handed the Human a small glass and he looked at the liquid pensively.

"Why is it the orange shit?" He mumbled before downing it in one go. He felt it's burn and he tried to savor what flavor their was in the drink.

Handing the glass back he watched as the small door opened to a dark room with a small cylindrical base and top. He slowly walked into the circle and sighed, this was it. Would he survive the years imprisoned? He hoped to God he did. But as the cell started to power up he looked one last time at Jo and Archivia.

"Jo… I love you." He said quietly. She nodded quickly before quoting something Raz had mentioned at one point. Knowing it would make him happy before he left them.

"I know."

**Post A/N: Well folks that is the last of His Own Path and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! I'm kinda iffy with the way I left it hanging, but I feel I gave a good enough description of what the prison was, I just feel that is how this chapter should have ended. Because surprise! There is a prologue below for those who have supported me in my story. It will take place after Oh Brother Where art Thou? and I hope that it will do as well as this one did. Other than that, I won't start it until RC has finished that story, until then I will go back and rehash some of the other chapters, flesh 'em out, lengthen them and fix some inconsistencies. I think I might try an Elder Scrolls or Titanfall one, what sounds good? Well all you Guardians! Keep on keepin' on and have a Merry Christmas! **

"I am telling you, days like this are rare." Starr seemed to argue with her two companions. "The weather is perfect and now we have the chance to see who is the best skills." The Exo woman exclaimed as she cradled her rifle.

"I don't think we are here for that." Entity, another Exo Hunter countered as he held his own rifle gently. He idly noted the difference in barrel length between all their rifles and would have grinned if he had a fleshy face.

"I think both of you are being childish." Echo, a Human Hunter sighed as he was setting up the targets. A smile never left his face however as he reached for his rifle. "What was the wager again?" He asked as he approached the group.

"We are all going to-"

"Alert! Alert! Guardians down!" All three Ghosts connected to the Guardians seemed to all cry out at the same time. The cries and small klaxons had effectively cut off Starr in her attempt to lay down the ground rules for their wager.

"What's going on?" Echo asked quickly. "Where is this?"

"Guardians are down in the Sanctum and in the prison block! Warning! Civilian casualties are present!"

"We need to go down there! Sanctum is closer." Entity started up.

"There are many Guardians, and security Frames far closer than us to this. They can handle it." Starr argued back.

"You don't understand Starr. I have a friend there, you remember Sage from training? He's a Cryptarch now. We have to go and help him!" Entity turned and started on his way towards the Sanctum to help the Cryptarchs.

"Damnit… Come on Echo, let's go help." The Human only shrugged as he shouldered his rifle and followed after the pair.

The trio hadn't been on the move for very long when they heard the first report of an explosion, and then it was followed by rifle fire. It sounded like they were approaching a warzone and so far their Ghosts couldn't tell them anything on who was doing this and why. This frustrated Starr to no end and when she finally reached the building that housed the Sanctum and it looked rather peaceful outside.

"Echo! You go on that side and we will breach the door!" The Human never got that far as the door bent out and flew of the tracks. The trio of Hunters took cover as they saw the woman, a Titan by how she was dressed groaned as she tried to stand back up.

She never got that far as the heavy boots of her attacker followed her out, the sound far more loud than it should have been. All their rifles lowered as they recognized the bright and clashing colors of yellow and green. They followed the boots up to the massive machine gun the man wielded with one arm and all of them flinched slightly as he fired a single round into the struggling Titan. Pulling his boot off of her chest and turning to look at the gathered Guardians, Starr felt dread as she recognized the voice that came through the auditory on the helmet.

"Hey guys, you're late." Raz stated as he casually placed his rifle over his left shoulder.


	13. Chapter 13

**Epilogue: From the Grave**

**A/N: So first off I don't own Destiny. Activision and Bungie do. Second, I know that I said last chapter was last. But due to an awesome suggestion I am submitting this epilogue as a lead in to when my story connects to the future of Oh Brother Where art Thou. Written by the talented RC, whenever that story gets to this point is up to RC. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.**

Silence seemed to be a constant in the Titan Raz's life. He remembered the silence he was subjected to when he went to space the first time. The silence he had to bear when his wife had left him and his daughters on Mars to hide away on Earth after the Traveler had left them. He even bore the silence of watching his impending doom as the Cabal marched over his home world and had shattered cities.

This silence he felt was too much, not even what he remembered from his resurrection at the desire of his Ghost, Twinkles didn't compare to this. In his memory, his death was as if but a blink of an eye. He had been sitting in the silence and unable to hear anything for the past… He wasn't sure how long and he knew he had kept count at one point. He knew though that it was useless where he was though, and it would only drive him into madness with the counting.

On the positive side though he had regained his memories of who he was and his life beforehand, no more holes. He unfortunately gained a few other memories that didn't seem to belong to him, he had plenty of time to sort those thoughts out though. Things that conflicted with his past and present, things that lead him to start questioning his purpose. He hoped it was just the long days or years he was spending in the Void prison allowing him to think of strange conspiracies.

His thoughts were interrupted by something that seemed completely alien to him. So foreign he jerked his head to the side to look at the translucent walls of his cell. He could see the other prisoners who paced in their prisons, or sat silently rocking back and forth. Even being able to see one another and not hear each other was terrible. But none of them seemed to be able to hear the sound. Sound? Why was he hearing anything at all?

He raised his hands in a semi defensive stance, something was happening to him, and he didn't know what to do. But if he was attacked he would be ready. The sound of what he identified as hissing continued to grow louder as everything seemed to slow down and dim. He knew the lights in the area were turned low to allow them some form of privacy, but things were getting darker. His eyelids felt droopy and heavy, he was getting tired.

With short panicky breaths he slapped at his face to force his mind to stay awake and conscious. It did little to alleviate the growing exhaustion and he could tell his heart was pumping on overdrive in flight mode. He did not understand why they were gassing him now, wouldn't they have just killed him when they ordered his imprisonment? He fought off the drowsiness with his whole being, willing himself to stay awake in the relative and very arguable safety of his prison. The irony was clearly not lost on him as he fought to stay incarcerated.

His eyes finally forced their way closed and refused to open, allowing him to sway unsteadily on his feet before he tipped back and felt himself start to fall into the depths of sleep. He never even felt his body make contact with any surface before his mind shut down and let him sleep for the first time in what would be many years.

It felt like an eternity later, but Raz could feel his limbs slightly as he battled into consciousness. He couldn't move any of them as they felt like they were being weighed down. With enough motor control as an infant he forced his eyes open and instantly regretted it when he slammed his eyelids closed again. He hissed in pain as he screwed his face in on itself trying to nurse his burning eyes. He cursed at himself, he was drugged and moved and now he was blinded with no power to move.

Raz could hear it now, he wasn't sure what it was as it was trying to force itself through the haze in his mind. He could hear the sound more and he realized, it was a voice! Someone was speaking to him! He wanted to understand who was talking and speak back. He hadn't had a real conversation with another person in God knows how long! He felt his lips move and worked his jaw into motion. He could feel the air pass his lips as he tried to form words. Sounds came out, he wasn't sure if he said anything or just made some garbled noises. A memory surfaced to compare his situation, an underwater escape simulation. He felt as if he was in the depths trying to communicate with someone on the shore. Things were clearing and the voice he could hear was decidedly feminine.

He finally could hear enough where he could form his own words, trying again his voice was nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

"Who.. Who's there?" Raz's voice cracked from years of being unused. "Jo? Jo is that you?"

With the pain in his eyes having subsided by quite a bit he decided to open them more carefully this time. His cautious opening was far more rewarding as he could see two very blurry people. They were close to him and were speaking to one another or at him, it changed intermittently. When he had spoken they had gone silent and one of them approached where he was laid down and leaned in to better understand what the Human was saying.

"Steady, buddy." The voice said slowly and clearly. "The numbness will fade soon enough and you'll be right as rain. Just please rest for now, Raz." The voice was hauntingly familiar, and had the electrical twang of what he identified as an Exo. As his vision cleared Raz had noted that the man, Exo, was a Hunter based on the armor scheme and the cloak.

"Entity? Is that you?" Raz asked in a slightly less dazed manner. His voice was coming in stronger as he could feel his strength returning. Disregarding his fellow Guardian's advice he tried to force himself into a sitting position, which the Exo grunted as he helped the massive Titan shift his frame.

"The one and only. I also got some other great news for you." Entity paused as he watched Raz refocus on the Exo's face. The sharpness returning to the man's blue eyes. "You've been released early! Congratulations!" He clapped the Human on the shoulder and he caught him in one swift motion as the man started to teeter off the table.

Entity's unusually chipper tone had caught Raz off guard and he could now see clearly that they were definitely in the company of another Hunter, a female Exo by the looks of her build and armor. He didn't know her and the situation was odd. He immediately went on the defensive.

"Wha-? Wait why?" He looked back at Entity even more confused than before.

The female Exo finally spoke, making her presence known again to the Human.

"Hello Raz. My name is Starr, Entity's told me a lot about you." Starr brought herself closer to him, so she could get a better look at his face. "You've been in this Void prison for 16 years, 2 months,10 days and 13 hours. I had you released early because I need your help."

Starr looked at him expectantly for a response, apparently waiting for some form of recognition of what she wanted from the Titan. He stared at her for a moment and blinked a few times before turning to Entity for an explanation.

"Something has come up and we need your, ahem, skillset for this to work." Entity held out one hand for Raz to take.

Raz looked at Entity and at Starr before looking down at the Exo's extended hand. Considering his options wasn't too hard, if he turned them down he would most likely be knocked back out and put back in his cell to serve out the rest of his sentence. He didn't know what exactly what they needed to do, but since they were Guardians it was most likely something along the lines of saving the world or galaxy as they knew it.

Clasping Entity's hand tightly Raz nodded.

"When do we start?"

**Post A/N: I hope you enjoyed this little extra. I once again thank everyone for their support for this story and hope that it has entertained at least some of you! Remember Guardians to keep on keepin' on!**


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